According to the 2000 census, of the slightly more than 3.7 million people over the age of 25 in Tennessee, 76 percent have earned a high school diploma or higher, 44 percent have some college, nearly 20 percent have earned a college degree, and 6.8 percent hold advanced degrees. All of these figures are lower than the national average. About one-half of Tennessee's 1.5 million families had children under the age of 18, with an average of 1.75 children per family.

With a population in 2006 of slightly more than 6 million, Tennessee reported 84,308 births, a crude birth rate of 14 percent. From 1997 to 2006, the percent of out-of-wedlock births increased 5.1 percent for mothers aged 10–17, 21.5 percent for mothers 18–19, and 32.3 ...