Nashville is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in the north central part of the state. The city is a center for the music, healthcare, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and home to numerous colleges and universities. It is known as a center of the country music industry, earning it the nickname "Music City, U.S.A."Since 1963, Nashville has had a consolidated city-county government, which includes six smaller municipalities in a two-tier system. The city is governed by a mayor, a vice-mayor, and a 40-member Metropolitan Council; 35 of the members are elected from single-member districts, while the other five are elected at-large. Reflecting the city's position in state government, Nashville is home to the Tennessee Supreme Court's courthouse for Middle Tennessee. According to 2016 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, the total consolidated city-county population stood at 684,410. The "balance" population, which excludes semi-independent municipalities within Nashville, was 660,388. The 2015 population of the entire 13-county Nashville metropolitan area was 1,830,345, making it the largest metropolitan statistical area in the state. The 2015 population of the Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Columbia combined statistical area, a larger trade area, was 1,951,644.
