Tennessee is astate located in theSouthern United States. There are 346 municipalities in the state of Tennessee.Municipalities in the state are designated as "cities" or "towns". As of the2010 U.S. census, 3,564,494 Tennesseans, or just over 56% of the state's total population of 6,346,105, lived in these 346 municipalities. The remainder lived inunincorporated areas.^[1]

Before 1954, all Tennessee municipalities were established byprivate act of thestate legislature and operated undercharters. As of 2007, 212 of the state's municipalities were operating under charters established by private act of the legislature. In 1953,amendments to theTennessee Constitution prohibited subsequent incorporations by private act and provided for several new forms of municipal charter. Fourteen cities, includingMemphis,Knoxville, andChattanooga, three of the state's four largest cities, are "home rule cities" organized under charters approved byreferendum of the citizens. Home rule charters are authorized by Article XI, Section 9, of theTennessee State Constitution, as amended in 1953. Other municipalities are incorporated under one of several standardized types ofcharter authorized by state statute:^[2]

• 67 cities use amayor-aldermanic charter under Tennessee Code Annotated (TCA) §6-1-101et seq.Hendersonville is the largest city using this type of charter.
• 49 cities use a uniformcity manager-commission charter under TCA §6-18-101et seq.Brentwood is the largest city operating with a uniform manager-commission charter.
• Two cities (Elizabethton andUnion City) are incorporated under a modified city manager-council charter under TCA §6-30-101et seq.
• Consolidated city-county governments exist in three places:Nashville andDavidson County,Lynchburg andMoore County, andHartsville andTrousdale County. City-county government consolidation is authorized by the Tennessee Constitution as amended in 1953 and TCA Title 7.

Some Tennessee municipalities are called "cities" and others are called "towns."^[3] These terms do not have legal significance in Tennessee^[4] and are not related topopulation, date of establishment, or type ofmunicipal charter.

Under current state law (TCA Title 6), a minimum of 1,500 residents are required to incorporate as a new municipality under the mayor-alderman or city manager-commission charter, and a minimum of 5,000 residents are required to incorporate under a modified city manager-council charter. In general,unincorporated areas within three miles of an existing municipality (within five miles if the municipality has a population of 100,000 or more) are not permitted to incorporate as new municipalities. Provisions for incorporation were less restrictive in the past. The capital of Tennessee is Nashville.

  County seat^[A]

• ^ All but one of Tennessee's county seats are municipalities. The exception isBlountville, county seat ofSullivan County.
• ^ For municipalities located in more than one county, the primary county (according toU.S. Census) is listed first.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toCities in Tennessee.

• Tennessee Municipal League
• Tennessee Code Annotated (TCA)
• Constitution of the State of Tennessee
• Getting to Know and Maybe Love Your Municipal Charter, by Sidney D. Hemsley,Municipal Technical Advisory Service, 1992, revised 2008.

• Cities in Tennessee
• Lists of cities in the United States by state
• Local government in Tennessee
• Populated places in Tennessee
• Towns in Tennessee
• Tennessee geography-related lists
• Lists of towns in the United States

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