Tennessee has 10 official state songs, which is only right given the state’s contributions to popular music, notably country music. Nashville, its capital and largest city, is rightly termed “Music City USA,” and is home to the Grand Ole Opry at Ryman Auditorium, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Music City Center, and the Opryland amusement park. That’s hardly surprising given that it’s home to around 180 recording studios, 130 music publishers, 100 live music clubs, and 80 record labels. Memphis, a few hours to the west, on the Arkansas border, has a storied musical history of its own. Memphis had Beale Street, home of the blues, long before Elvis Presley made Graceland a famous destination for rock ‘n’ roll pilgrimages. Beale Street, made famous by African American musical pioneers like as W.C. Handy, Louis Armstrong, Muddy Waters, and B.B. King, is now a national historic site. Finally, don’t forget Dollywood, Dolly Parton’s Appalachian theme park in Pigeon Forge, East Tennessee, near Knoxville. Its new DreamMore Resort opened in 2015, as part of its ongoing expansion.

The current economy of Tennessee is highly reliant on automotive manufacturing, as well as related suppliers and services. The Volunteer State was ranked top in the United States for vehicle production by Business Facilities in 2015, a position it held from 2010 to 2013. Tennessee is home to Nissan, General Motors, and Volkswagen assembly facilities, as well as over 900 auto suppliers such as Hankook Tires, Bridgestone Americas, Magneti Marelli, and Yanfeng Automotive Interiors. Overall, there are almost 118,000 automotive workers at operations in 88 of the state’s 95 counties, making it the region with the highest concentration of auto-related jobs in the South.

However, the auto sector isn’t the only large enterprise in town. FedEx, AutoZone, International Paper, Eastman Chemical, Tractor Supply, Dollar General, Community Health Systems, and Hospital Corp. of America (HCA Holdings), the nation’s biggest operator of private for-profit hospitals, were among the 11 Fortune 500 firms headquartered in Tennessee in 2015. Tourism is also playing a growing economic role, with over 13 million tourists contributing to a new high of more than $17 billion in economic effect in 2014. Approximately 30% of tourism expenditure was centred in Nashville, and tourism was responsible for 57,400 employment overall. Tennessee, with a population of over 6.5 million people, is the 17th most populated state in the US and the 22nd fastest growing, with a population growth rate of around 4% between 2010 and 2015. Tennesseans are 78 percent white, 16 percent black, 4 percent Hispanic, 1 percent Asian, and 1 percent multiracial. As of early 2016, the statewide median family income was $44,298 – over $10,000 less than the national median – with approximately 17% of the population living below the poverty line. According to Gallup surveys, Tennessee is the fourth most Protestant state in the US, after only Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas.

Tennessee real estate prices are relatively cheap by national standards; as of early 2016, the statewide median house value was $148,894, or $35,000 less than the national median. However, the situation is more expensive in Nashville, a cultural hotspot with a metro area population of nearly 1.7 million people. Within the municipal borders, the typical house value was $192,110. Affluent Nashville suburbs like Franklin ($357,940), Oak Hill ($504,481), and Brentwood ($611,764) are even more expensive. Memphis, the second-largest city, with a median house value of only $99,417. Knoxville, the third biggest city, was likewise more cheap, with a typical house value of $119,222.