Tennessee stretches from the scenic Great Smoky Mountains of the
east to the banks of the Mississippi River in the west.
Tennessee covers 41,217 square miles, with a 2012 estimated
population of 6,456,243 people – with 1,689,217 living in rural
Tennessee (USDA-ERS). Nashville is the state capital. The
state’s largest cities are Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 79.5% of the state’s
population is white, 16.9% is Black/African-American, and 4.7%
is of Hispanic/Latino origin (2011). There are 134 hospitals in
Tennessee (Kaiser, 2010), 16 of which are identified by the Flex
Monitoring Team as Critical Access Hospitals (March 2013). There
are 63 Rural Health Clinics in Tennessee (Kaiser, 2012) and 23
Federally Qualified Health Centers provide services at 147 sites
in the state (Kaiser, 2010). 14.0% of Tennessee residents lack
health insurance (Kaiser, 2011). According to the USDA Economic
Research Service, the average per-capita income for Tennessee
residents in 2011 was $36,56