Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is the most populous city in the state. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. Nashville is a major hub for the health care, music, publishing, banking and transportation industries.
Nashville has a consolidated city-county government which includes seven smaller municipalities in a two-tier system. According to 2017 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, the total consolidated city-county population stood at 691,243. The 2017 population of the entire 13-county Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area was 1,903,027, making it the largest metropolitan area in the state.
Nashville is often labeled the “Athens of the South” due to the many colleges and universities in the city and metropolitan area. The colleges and universities in Nashville include American Baptist College, Aquinas College, The Art Institute of Tennessee, Belmont University, Fisk University, Lipscomb University, Meharry Medical College, Nashville School of Law, Tennessee State University, Trevecca Nazarene University, Vanderbilt University, and Watkins College of Art&Design.
Nashville has several professional sports teams, most notably the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League and the Tennessee Titans of the National Football League. Several other pro sports teams also call Nashville home, as does the NCAA college football Music City Bowl. The Vanderbilt Commodores are members of the Southeastern Conference. The football team of Tennessee State University plays its home games at Nissan Field.
The Tennessee Performing Arts Center is the major performing arts center of the city. It is the home of the Tennessee Repertory Theatre, Nashville Children’s Theatre, the Nashville Opera, and Nashville Ballet. In September 2006, the Schermerhorn Symphony Center opened as the home of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra.
