Is there anything really wrong with being called a redneck?
It’s a part of our culture. Rednecks are hailed as being great in our song lyrics. They’re prominently featured in reality television. There are even video games about rednecks.
So, you’d think people who are rednecks would be proud to be called a redneck.
Wait. What is a redneck anyways? Well, according to the official bible of literature, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a redneck is:
“A white person who lives in a small town or in the country especially in the southern U.S., who typically has a working-class job, and who is seen by others as being uneducated and having opinions and attitudes that are offensive.”
Plus, we thought why not add in a few stereotypes? Cause, you know, rednecks like to hunt, drink, smoke and shoot things. And shop at Walmart.
Using that criteria, it’s not hard to scrape the internet, run some scientific data on where rednecks might live in Tennessee, and then put out a list.
Because, the data never lies, does it?
So, hold our beers and watch this. After analyzing all 106 cities with a decent amount of people in them, we came up with this list as The Most Redneck Cities in Tennessee:
- Bolivar (Photos)
- Rockwood (Photos)
- Winchester (Photos)
- Pulaski (Photos)
- Lexington (Photos)
- Lawrenceburg (Photos)
- Lewisburg (Photos)
- Elizabethton (Photos)
- Maryville (Photos)
- Springfield (Photos)
Read on below to see how we crunched the numbers and how your town ranked.
For more Tennessee reading, check out:
What redneck criteria did we use?
In order to rank the most redneck cities in Tennessee, we first limited it to places with more than 5,00 people to keep things as apples-to-apples as possible.
We then had to determine what criteria makes a redneck.
We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using Yelp and the Walmart store locator, this is the criteria we used:
The dictionary definition categories
- Small towns
- Least amount of high school graduates per capita
- Lives in the south
And the stereotypical categories
- Number of dive bars per city
- Number of dentists per capita
- Number of tobacco stores per city
- Number of guns and ammo stores per city
- Number of Walmarts per capita
Note: For the sake of getting reliable numbers, we counted places within a city’s border, as well as within a short driving distance.
If you’d like to see the complete list of cities, scroll to the bottom of this post to see a link to the abridged chart.
1. Bolivar
Population: 5,364
Gun stores per capita: 2nd in the state
Tobacco shops per capita: 5th in Tennessee
High school graduates per capita: 4th lowest
Walmarts per capita: 1st in Tennessee
Congratulations, Bolivar. You have the official bragging rights as being named the most redneck city in the entire state of Tennessee. You may now brag to your friends and share this endlessly on your Facebook walls.
Lets see why. Bolivar has a Walmart Supercenter. And there’s only 5,300 people there. That means they get an entire Walmart all to their own!
In all seriousness, Bolivar has the second-highest number of gun stores per capita, the second-highest number of smoke shops per capita and the fourth-lowest number of high school graduates in the entire state of Tennessee.
Little Bolivar won by a landslide.
For all interested parties, Bolivar is located about 90 minutes east of Memphis. Go there and prosper, young rednecks!
Bolivar residents click here to get your ‘Number One Redneck City in Tennessee’ T-Shirts.
2. Rockwood
Population: 5,537
High school graduates per capita: 9th lowest in the state
Tobacco stores per capita: 7th highest
Walmarts per capita: 2nd in Tennessee
Rockwood has everything a redneck needs. There’s a Walmart and a community college in town. You’ve got two tobacco stores in a very small area. You got Sam’s Place to drown your sorrows in (pictured above). Plus, it’s 92% white.
Rednecks love to fish, and Watts Bar Lake is a huge, sprawling waterway perfect for a long day out in the boat.
Did you know actress Megan Fox is from Rockwood? Didn’t know she was a redneck.
3. Winchester
Population: 8,475
Gun stores per capita: 7th highest
Fishing stores per capita: 3rd most in the state
Can you think of a more redneck name for a town than Winchester? You can bet there are a lot of gun and ammo stores here. In fact, Winchester has the seventh-highest number of gun stores in the state, per capita. You can bet they fill a lot of turkey and deer tags down there.
There are almost more fishing and tackle shops per capita here than anywhere else in Tennessee, too. And there’s a lot of opportunity to catch some bass, as Tim’s Ford Lake has some of the best bass fishing in the state. Locals enjoy going to Larry’s Bar-B-Q, a place so redneck they don’t even have a website.
4. Pulaski
Population: 7,850
Bars in region per capita: 12th most in Tennessee
Fishing gear per capita: 18th in the state
Tobacco stores per capita: 17th
Somewhere down in southern Tennessee you’ll find the tiny town of Pulaski. Locals can choose from Sarge’s or Kathy’s Tavern after they’re done trolling down at Richland Creek, which meanders right through town.
Plus, this little place has a Walmart and a Home Depot, all in the same parking lot. So, while dad is getting some plywood for that new deck, mom and the kids can get their shopping on, too.
However, maybe Pulaski rednecks are a little stubborn. As one local put it on City-Data, “If you aint’ from Pulaski, you ain’t part of the ‘community’ ‘.
5. Lexington
Population: 7,703
Dentists in town: 3
Tobacco shops per capita: 4th most in Tennessee
Bars per capita in the region: 12th most in the state
Lexington has three tobacco stores, a Walmart, and is right on the banks of Beech Lake. Locals also have the option of trolling at the nearby Big Sandy River and Forked Deer River. Plus, there aren’t many pesky dentists in town reminding Lexingtonians they should probably quit chewing tobacco.
What else would a redneck want?
6. Lawrenceburg
Population: 10,413
Fishing gear per capita: 4th most in Tennessee
Bars per capita and nearby: 12th highest in the state
High school graduates per capita: 14th lowest
Lawrenceburg is a little west of Pulaski on Route 64 in southern Tennessee. Outside of Shoals Creek, there’s limited fishing in the area, but plenty of smaller ponds and lakes. When did a ‘no fishing’ sign ever stop a redneck?
Lawrenceburg ranks high in Tennessee for least number of high school graduates and number of bars in the area. Plus, the city is 94% white, and according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, that means lots and lots of rednecks.
Plus, possible the most redneck American of them all, Davy Crockett, lived here for a long period of his life.
7. Lewisburg
Population: 11,121
Bars per capita and the area: 12th most in the state
Gun stores per person: 11th highest
High school graduates per capita: 15th lowest in Tennessee
On the banks of Big Rock Creek is the little city of Lewisburg. Located along I-65 an hour south of Nashville, Lewisburg ranks high as a redneck city primarily due to the number of bars and gun stores in the area. Daryl’s Guns is pictured above.
Local rednecks pile into Trolls Tavern. And since Lewisburg is in the ‘rolling hills of Middle Tennessee’, there’s lot of good hunting year round. Lewisburg rednecks who don’t want to drive to the many lakes and rivers in the area can simply head down to the Big Whiskers Catfish Farm, just outside of town.
8. Elizabethton
Population: 14,228
Fishing gear per capita: 6th most in Tennessee
Bars per capita: 13th highest in the state
Tobacco shops per person: 15th highest
Elizabethton has it made if you’re a redneck. It’s at the base of the Cherokee National Forest, which includes Watauga Lake as well as South Holston Lake. So you know there’s plenty of hunting and fishing nearby. And the Walmart is right at the base of the hills, so locals can stock up on the cheap before heading up the mountain.
There’s plenty of cigarette smoking going on as well. Locals don’t have a lot of opportunities for alcohol consumption within city limits, but there are plenty of dive bar options in nearby Johnson City.
And it’s 96% white.
Elizabethton might as well be redneck central in Tennessee when you consider all of those factors.
9. Maryville
Population: 27,547
High school graduates per capita: 3rd lowest in Tennessee
Bars per capita and nearby: 2nd most in the state
Fishing gear per person: 8th most
Maryville is actually the largest of the cities to top this list, meaning it has the most rednecks in the state of Tennessee. Congratulations.
While some will chime in that Maryville is a college town, take these numbers into consideration: Maryville residents actually have less education than those in Bolivar. There are only two other cities in Tennessee with less education, per capita. And, Maryville has nearly more dive bars per person than any other city in Tennessee. They’ll drink to that.
We didn’t factor in Maryville High School’s graduation rate. We simply looked at the number of people who live there who don’t have a high school diploma.
Per capita, Maryville has the fifth-most gun stores in the general vicinity as well.
So while most of the bars downtown Maryville might be considered ‘fratty’, the true rednecks who live here know how to find the dive bars just outside of town.
10. Springfield
Population: 16,445
Tobacco stores per capita: 6th most
Bars per capita: 12th most
Fishing gear per person: 18th most
Springfield is surrounded by creeks and has a Walmart smack dab in the middle. There’s plenty of places to get guns, beer, and to hunt, too, making it one of the most redneck cities in Tennessee.
There You Have It
We used the official dictionary definition of a redneck and stereotypes that the internet says are true. Then using science, we figured out the most redneck cities in Tennessee. If you’re analyzing smaller towns in Tennessee with blue collar workers, where people have lots of options for drinking, smoking, hunting and Walmarting, this is an accurate list.
Click here to see the data for all categories
Additionally, you might be interested in reading our post: 41 Photos Of Tennessee That Will Make You Want to Move There
Or, here’s a video we found that shows off Tennessee from above. A must watch!
If you’re curious enough, here are the least redneck cities in Tennessee, according to science.
- Tellico Village (Pop. 5,700)
- Farragut (Pop. 20,688)
- Germantown (Pop. 38,954)
- Spurgeon (Pop. 3,752)
- Lake City (Pop. 1,883)
