The 10 Best Small Towns In Tennessee For 2024

You’ve seen these lists before. Best places to live in Tennessee. Best sururbs in Tennessee. Best counties in Tennessee.

Etc., etc., etc.

But they all focus on major cities and towns in the Volunteer State, and no one pays attention to the little guy.

Well, that’s all about to change as we put together a list of the superb small towns in Tennessee based on numbers–not opinions or hearsay.

We’ll dive right into our methodology in the next section, but first, we thought you might want to know which places in Tennessee ranked the best based on Saturday Night Science.

Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table

What’s the best small town in Tennessee? Belle Meade is the best small town in Tennessee based on the most recent Census data. If you live in one of these small towns like Belle Meade, chances are, you’re not surprised. After all, you know how great you have it.

But for the rest of you–keep reading, and we’ll get to just why these small towns made our list.

For more reading on the Volunteer State check out:

• Best Places To Live In Tennessee
• Cheapest Places To Live In Tennessee
• Most Dangerous Cities In Tennessee

Next 10 Cities

Methodology: How We Determined The Coolest Towns In Tennessee

We threw a lot of criteria at this report to get the best, most complete results of the best small towns in Tennessee possible.

Using the most recent data from the Census’s 2018-2022 American Community Survey, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Saturday Night Science, this is the criteria we used:

• Population Density (Higher is better)
• Lowest Unemployment Rates
• Housing costs (Higher is better. More demand.)
• Adjusted Median Income (Higher is better)
• Highly Educated Adults (Higher is better)
• Insurance Rates (Higher is better)
• Commute Times (Lower is better)

We looked at places with populations lower than 5,000 people and greater than 1,000, of which there were many – 174 to be exact.

We then ranked each place in each category with scores from 1 to 174, averaged them out, and the lowest scores went to our Best Small Towns in Tennessee. Top of that list — Belle Meade.

This is our tenth time ranking the best small places to live in Tennessee.

Summary: Science Can Tackle Any Issue, Even Small Ones

We said it once, and we’ll say it again — this list: it’s just science. We did the research, crunched the numbers, and it turns out these 15 small towns in Tennessee are the best in which to live.

And who can argue with that?

The best small towns in Tennessee are Belle Meade, Lookout Mountain, Oak Hill, Forest Hills, Sewanee, Gray, Lakesite, Colonial Heights, Fairmount, and Spurgeon.

If you’re curious, here are the worst small towns in Tennessee:

1. Lakewood Park
2. Henning
3. Gruetli-Laager

For more Tennessee reading, check out:

• Best Places To Raise A Family In Tennessee
• Safest Places In Tennessee
• Worst Places To Live In Tennessee

Best Small Towns In Tennessee