Tennessee county map

How Tennessee’s counties are laid out

Tennessee’s 95 counties cover 42,144 square miles, an average of about 440 square miles each — small by national standards, because the state was settled early and its counties were sized so that a farmer could ride to the courthouse and back in a day. The oldest were created while the land still belonged to North Carolina: Washington County in 1777, followed by Sullivan, Greene and Hawkins in the north-east valley. The Southwest Territory and then the new state (1796) added counties along the Cumberland around Nashville, and the Chickasaw cession of 1818 opened West Tennessee, where the counties from the Tennessee River to the Mississippi were laid out in 1819–1824 in a rough grid.

The three “Grand Divisions” of East, Middle and West Tennessee are written into state law, and county lines respect them: the Tennessee River is crossed twice, first between East and Middle, then between Middle and West. Names record presidents and generals (Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson, Polk, Sevier, Blount, Robertson), Revolutionary battles and figures (Warren, Wayne, Sumner), Cherokee words (Sequatchie, Unicoi) and local landmarks (Cumberland, Cocke, Cheatham).

Three county governments are consolidated with their principal city: Nashville–Davidson (1963, the first big-city consolidation in the South), Lynchburg–Moore County (1988) and Hartsville–Trousdale County (2001). Tennessee has no independent cities. Memphis in Shelby County, Knoxville in Knox County and Chattanooga in Hamilton County are the other large seats.

All 95 counties of Tennessee

Five county facts

• Largest by area: Shelby County in the south-west corner, seat Memphis, about 760 square miles of land between the Mississippi and the Wolf and Loosahatchie rivers. Among the mountain counties, Sevier, Carter and Polk are the biggest in the east.
• Smallest by area: Trousdale County, seat Hartsville, about 115 square miles on the Cumberland River north-east of Nashville. Its consolidated city-county government is one of the smallest in the country.
• Most populous: Shelby County, with about 930,000 people in 2020. Davidson County (Nashville) is second at about 715,000, then Knox County (Knoxville) and Hamilton County (Chattanooga); Rutherford and Williamson counties south of Nashville are the fastest-growing.
• Least populous: Pickett County, seat Byrdstown, on the Kentucky line at the edge of the Cumberland Plateau, with about 5,000 people. Van Buren, Moore and Hancock counties are also below 7,500.
• Oldest and newest: Washington County (Jonesborough), organised in 1777 under North Carolina, is the oldest. Chester County (Henderson) in West Tennessee, finally organised in 1879, is the newest. Tennessee has three consolidated city-counties and no independent cities.

Reading the map

Press Streets and zoom in on the highlighted state to see county lines. Tennessee is a long, narrow state, and the 95 counties run in a band from the Appalachian ridges in the east through the Cumberland Plateau, the Nashville Basin and the Highland Rim to the flat Mississippi bottomlands in the west. The time-zone line runs through the state along county boundaries: the East Tennessee counties from the Cumberland Plateau eastwards, including Knox, Hamilton and the Tri-Cities counties, keep Eastern Time, while Middle and West Tennessee, including Nashville and Memphis, keep Central Time. The line falls roughly along the western edge of the Plateau, so neighbouring counties such as Cumberland (Eastern) and Putnam (Central) are an hour apart. Tennessee shares borders with eight states, a record it holds jointly with Missouri.

Related maps

• Tennessee map — cities, borders and geography.
• Blank Tennessee map and printable Tennessee map.
• Nashville, the state capital, consolidated with Davidson County; Memphis in Shelby County.
• Neighbouring county maps: Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri.
• East South Central states · the South · Central and Eastern time zones.
• Geography: Mississippi River, Appalachian Mountains, National parks.
• All US county maps.