The 10 Dumbest Places In Tennessee For 2024


The dumbest places in Tennessee are La Follette and Pigeon Forge for 2024 based on Saturday Night Science.

The unfortunate fact of the matter is that some places in the Volunteer State have a larger percent of their population that never graduated from high school.

While the emphasis on going to college might be overblown, the fact is that not graduating from high school puts you at a significant disadvantage on average. Educational attainment might not be the best way to measure one person’s intelligence, but it does shine a light on the state.

We will use Saturday Night Science to determine what places in Tennessee have the highest percentage of adults without a high school degree.

A recent study we published found that Tennessee is the 38th smartest state in the United States, with an average IQ of 98.

But that doesn’t mean that a few cities in Tennessee are a bit slower than others due to a lack of basic education.


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


Dumbest Cities In Tennessee Map

Don’t freak out.

Some places are just smarter than others, but that says nothing about the character of the people living there. It’s another data point a real estate agent would never tell you.

For this ranking, we only looked at cities with populations greater than 5,000, leaving us 94 cities in Tennessee to rank. You can take a look at the data below.

For more Tennessee reading, check out:

The 10 Dumbest Places In Tennessee For 2024

La Follette, TN

Source: Wikipedia User Brian Stansberry | CC BY 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

3
/10
Population: 7,349
% Adult High School Dropout: 23.0%
% Highly Educated: 5.0%
More on La Follette: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Pigeon Forge, TN

Source: Wikipedia User Edward C. Denny | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

3
/10
Population: 6,345
% Adult High School Dropout: 27.0%
% Highly Educated: 10.0%
More on Pigeon Forge: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

4
/10
Population: 5,555
% Adult High School Dropout: 25.0%
% Highly Educated: 11.0%
More on Lafayette: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Brownsville, TN

Source: Wikipedia User Thomas R Machnitzki ([email protected]) | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10
Population: 9,739
% Adult High School Dropout: 19.0%
% Highly Educated: 9.0%
More on Brownsville: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Shelbyville, TN

Source: Wikipedia User Ichabod | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

4
/10
Population: 23,676
% Adult High School Dropout: 21.0%
% Highly Educated: 12.0%
More on Shelbyville: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Bolivar, TN

Source: Wikipedia User RealElectrical | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

4
/10
Population: 5,197
% Adult High School Dropout: 18.0%
% Highly Educated: 11.0%
More on Bolivar: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Ripley, TN

Source: Wikipedia User Thomas R Machnitzki (thomasmachnitzki.com) | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

1
/10
Population: 7,794
% Adult High School Dropout: 20.0%
% Highly Educated: 12.0%
More on Ripley: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Dunlap, TN

Source: Wikipedia User Brian Stansberry | CC BY 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

4
/10
Population: 5,443
% Adult High School Dropout: 19.0%
% Highly Educated: 12.0%
More on Dunlap: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

9. Smithville

Smithville, TN

Source: Wikipedia User Ichabod | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

4
/10
Population: 5,059
% Adult High School Dropout: 37.0%
% Highly Educated: 16.0%
More on Smithville: Crime | Real Estate

Newport, TN

Source: Wikipedia User Brian Stansberry | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

4
/10
Population: 6,850
% Adult High School Dropout: 17.0%
% Highly Educated: 12.0%
More on Newport: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Methodology: How we determined the dumbest cities in the Volunteer State

We realize that formal education is only part of it when it comes to being intelligent, but on the other hand, knowing the difference between they’re, their, and there is always going to make you look pretty stupid.

So, we used Saturday Night Science to narrow down our criteria to focus on a city’s educational opportunities and what percentage of the population takes advantage of those opportunities.

In short, we came up with these criteria to determine the dumbest cities in Tennessee:

  • % of the city’s population with less than a high school education (Age 25+)
  • % of city’s population with a college degree (Age 25+)

We got the data from the U.S. Census 2018-2022 American Community Survey.

Then, our algorithm generates a rank for each place in these categories. After crunching all the numbers, a ranking of the cities in Tennessee from dumbest to brightest.

For this ranking, we used every Tennessee city with at least 5,000 residents. We updated this article for 2024, and it’s our tenth time ranking the dumbest cities in Tennessee.

There You Have It – Now That You’re Asleep

If you’re measuring the locations in Tennessee where there are a high number of dropouts and adults who never received a formal education, this is an accurate ranking.

The dumbest cities in Tennessee are La Follette, Pigeon Forge, Lafayette, Brownsville, Shelbyville, Bolivar, Ripley, Dunlap, Smithville, and Newport.

If you’re also curious enough, here are the smartest places in Tennessee, according to science:

  1. Signal Mountain
  2. Farragut
  3. Germantown

For more Tennessee reading, check out:

Dumbest Cities In Tennessee For 2024

Rank City Population % Adult High School Dropout % Highly Educated
1 La Follette, TN 7,349 23.0% 5.0%
2 Pigeon Forge, TN 6,345 27.0% 10.0%
3 Lafayette, TN 5,555 25.0% 11.0%
4 Brownsville, TN 9,739 19.0% 9.0%
5 Shelbyville, TN 23,676 21.0% 12.0%
6 Bolivar, TN 5,197 18.0% 11.0%
7 Ripley, TN 7,794 20.0% 12.0%
8 Dunlap, TN 5,443 19.0% 12.0%
9 Smithville, TN 5,059 37.0% 16.0%
10 Newport, TN 6,850 17.0% 12.0%
11 Madisonville, TN 5,120 18.0% 15.0%
12 Milan, TN 8,165 16.0% 12.0%
13 Mcminnville, TN 13,756 17.0% 14.0%
14 Covington, TN 8,644 15.0% 13.0%
15 Dayton, TN 7,139 20.0% 17.0%
16 Humboldt, TN 7,851 17.0% 16.0%
17 Morristown, TN 30,574 17.0% 16.0%
18 Rockwood, TN 5,468 13.0% 10.0%
19 Harriman, TN 6,000 16.0% 16.0%
20 Savannah, TN 7,206 12.0% 11.0%
21 Erwin, TN 6,026 14.0% 15.0%
22 Springfield, TN 18,775 15.0% 16.0%
23 Portland, TN 13,177 13.0% 14.0%
24 Lewisburg, TN 12,376 14.0% 16.0%
25 Fayetteville, TN 7,026 15.0% 17.0%
26 Paris, TN 10,311 16.0% 19.0%
27 Henderson, TN 6,326 17.0% 20.0%
28 Lawrenceburg, TN 11,592 14.0% 17.0%
29 Millersville, TN 5,818 14.0% 18.0%
30 Lexington, TN 7,927 11.0% 14.0%
31 East Ridge, TN 22,040 14.0% 21.0%
32 Crossville, TN 12,099 13.0% 19.0%
33 Millington, TN 10,558 12.0% 19.0%
34 Sweetwater, TN 6,310 11.0% 17.0%
35 Athens, TN 14,091 14.0% 23.0%
36 Dyersburg, TN 16,170 14.0% 23.0%
37 Manchester, TN 12,325 14.0% 24.0%
38 Sevierville, TN 17,986 12.0% 22.0%
39 Dickson, TN 16,051 10.0% 16.0%
40 Greeneville, TN 15,458 12.0% 23.0%
41 Elizabethton, TN 14,375 12.0% 25.0%
42 Pulaski, TN 8,301 10.0% 20.0%
43 Soddy-Daisy, TN 13,091 11.0% 23.0%
44 La Vergne, TN 38,553 11.0% 23.0%
45 Winchester, TN 9,450 11.0% 26.0%
46 Memphis, TN 630,027 12.0% 28.0%
47 Columbia, TN 42,474 8.0% 22.0%
48 White House, TN 13,305 10.0% 24.0%
49 Jackson, TN 67,993 11.0% 27.0%
50 Cleveland, TN 47,725 12.0% 31.0%
51 Mount Carmel, TN 5,486 6.0% 18.0%
52 Church Hill, TN 7,016 7.0% 20.0%
53 Clinton, TN 10,060 6.0% 19.0%
54 Gallatin, TN 44,947 11.0% 30.0%
55 Kingsport, TN 55,415 11.0% 30.0%
56 Cookeville, TN 34,967 12.0% 34.0%
57 Smyrna, TN 53,760 10.0% 28.0%
58 Tullahoma, TN 21,107 10.0% 28.0%
59 Chattanooga, TN 181,288 11.0% 34.0%
60 Greenbrier, TN 6,954 6.0% 22.0%
61 Kingston, TN 5,987 7.0% 23.0%
62 Jonesborough, TN 5,891 8.0% 27.0%
63 Knoxville, TN 191,857 10.0% 32.0%
64 Munford, TN 6,357 6.0% 24.0%
65 Mckenzie, TN 5,608 9.0% 30.0%
66 Alcoa, TN 11,095 10.0% 31.0%
67 Lebanon, TN 39,562 8.0% 30.0%
68 Bristol, TN 27,307 8.0% 30.0%
69 Martin, TN 10,823 6.0% 28.0%
70 Collegedale, TN 11,001 10.0% 45.0%
71 Goodlettsville, TN 17,500 9.0% 35.0%
72 Oakland, TN 9,139 6.0% 29.0%
73 Clarksville, TN 167,882 5.0% 29.0%
74 Bartlett, TN 57,481 7.0% 35.0%
75 Fairview, TN 9,519 7.0% 35.0%
76 Red Bank, TN 11,919 8.0% 39.0%
77 Medina, TN 5,121 6.0% 31.0%
78 Oak Ridge, TN 31,535 7.0% 38.0%
79 Atoka, TN 10,070 4.0% 30.0%
80 Murfreesboro, TN 153,487 6.0% 41.0%
81 Maryville, TN 31,876 5.0% 38.0%
82 Hendersonville, TN 61,589 4.0% 42.0%
83 Arlington, TN 14,342 4.0% 49.0%
84 Spring Hill, TN 51,319 4.0% 49.0%
85 Franklin, TN 83,630 5.0% 63.0%
86 Thompson’s Station, TN 7,426 4.0% 61.0%
87 Collierville, TN 51,170 4.0% 61.0%
88 Mount Juliet, TN 39,525 3.0% 48.0%
89 Lakeland, TN 13,811 3.0% 52.0%
90 Nolensville, TN 14,444 2.0% 72.0%
91 Brentwood, TN 44,830 3.0% 75.0%
92 Germantown, TN 41,094 1.0% 69.0%
93 Farragut, TN 23,795 0.0% 67.0%
94 Signal Mountain, TN 8,833 1.0% 73.0%
About Nick Johnson

Nick Johnson earned his masters in Business Administration from the Drucker School At Claremont Graduate University. He has written for 39 publications across the country and ran the media relations department at Movoto, a real estate portal based in San Francisco. He has been featured in over 500 publications as an expert in real estate and as an authority on real estate trends.

Nick's the creator of the HomeSnacks YouTube channel that now has over 260,000 subscribers and is an excellent source to learn about different parts of the country.

5 thoughts on “The 10 Dumbest Places In Tennessee For 2024

  1. I hate to say it but if you look at the educators that are being hired, you’ll see a loss of people who are related being hired on. If you have a relative that is already working for the school system, you are more likely to be hired than someone who doesn’t. They appear to have no interest in hiring on a person’s credentials or whether they come highly recommended by someone they worked for while student teaching. It is who you know that gets you hired. Plain and simple.

  2. The problem is with the schools it self all they only care if they are at school so they get money for every child there . They don’t teach any more they pass the kids because of the no child left be hide . If a child can’t do the work when the teacher puts it on the board they are just out of luck . Because they are told to figure it out their self . I have had people with kids in different schools tell me the same thing . Add this new math last time I checked 2+2 =4 not 6

    1. You might want to proofread your response before attempting to make a point on the topic of education.

  3. Pam S.:the problem is not with the educators or the schools.The problem is with: a) parents not being involved in their own children’s lives, and b) a bunch of politicians making educational policy when they have no expertise in education.
    As a teacher in the Tennesee public school system, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that we care VERY much about our students’ education and wish we had control over what we taught and how the students were assessed. Get your butt to a school board meeting and help make changes. God knows they don’t listen to teachers.

    Also, Joanna Vazquez: your statement simply isn’t true. Many teachers, including myself, have been hired from out of state because of our credentials, not because we know someone or are related to someone in the district. Sounds like you may have a personal issue.

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