Nashville Has Most Colleges with 55,773 Students Enrolled in Tennessee

The top city with the most 4-year colleges in Tennessee is Nashville, TN with a total of 28 colleges with 55,773 students enrolled.

While Nashville has the most individual colleges, it is not the city with the most students. Knoxville has the largest student population with 62,712 students enrolled (10 colleges) in Tennessee. You can check the largets cities by student population in Tennessee here.

The largest college in Nashville is Vanderbilt University with 13,575 students enrolled.

Other top cities in Tennessee include

Tennessee Cities with Most Colleges

The following table lists cities with the most number of 4-year colleges in Tennessee, including the total number of schools, total enrollment, undergraduate and graduate students , along with the distribution of men and women students across institutions. Click on any city to explore detailed information about colleges in that area. Each page also includes information about community colleges and trade schoools in the metropolitan region and nearby cities.

Tennessee Cities with Most Colleges
CityTotal Number of SchoolsTotal EnrollmentUndergraduateGraduateMenWomen
Nashville, TN28 Schools55,77342,14413,62921,59734,176
Memphis, TN24 Schools40,27631,6168,66016,06024,216
Knoxville, TN10 Schools62,71251,52411,18825,45137,261
Chattanooga, TN7 Schools24,64122,7431,8988,79615,845
Murfreesboro, TN5 Schools21,70019,2582,44210,02711,673
Clarksville, TN5 Schools11,0999,5901,5094,3766,723
Jackson, TN5 Schools10,1599,3847754,3225,837
Cleveland, TN5 Schools7,7786,9098693,1604,618
Cookeville, TN4 Schools11,1659,8441,3215,6895,476
Johnson City, TN3 Schools13,91511,0182,8975,3268,589