Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Forest Hills's standout: the median household earns $250K. Overall it grades C, ranked 95th of 175 in Tennessee. CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 96% of the country. Its weakest subject is cost of living: the typical home is worth about $1.4 million, 16.5 years of the Nashville metro’s $85K median household income. 79% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more in Forest Hills, against 23% in Tennessee’s towns and 29% across U.S. towns. Of the 177 Tennessee towns we compare, none has a higher share of households owning their home than Forest Hills. Forest Hills has 9 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Longleat and Knight-Moran House.
Where Forest Hills beats most towns.
| Widest gap | Forest Hills | TN |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 6.3% | 16.2% |
Where Forest Hills’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Tennessee), ordered by how far Forest Hills is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for jobs and income (better than 99% of comparable towns) to D− for cost of living (better than 4%), so the C overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 2,101 in 1960, 5,038 in 2020. The archive holds 4 old photos and papers going back to 1935 and 5 maps from 1932 on.
9 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Explore the history →Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Forest Hills. Close and well known come first.
Big draw8 mi Stadium & arenaNissan Stadium
6 mi MuseumParthenon
12 mi TheatreRyman Auditorium
7 mi Stadium & arenaBridgestone Arena
5 mi Stadium & arenaFirstBank Stadium
6 mi Stadium & arenaGeodis ParkNissan Stadium: Kaldari, CC0 · Parthenon: Mayur Phadtare, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Ryman Auditorium: Unknown, CC0 · Bridgestone Arena: EVula, CC BY 3.0 · FirstBank Stadium: Mhar564, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Geodis Park: CheckeredYeti, CC BY-SA 4.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Forest Hills, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Forest Hills.
Forest Hills is among the three healthiest towns in Tennessee, but it has homes that cost more against local pay than most of Tennessee and has little public open land.
Its public schools are run by the Davidson County school district. Its one school is below.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Percy Priest ElementaryLargest public elementary schoolGrades K–5 | Grades K–5 | 553 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within TN on state tests and graduation
It ranks #3 of the 176 Tennessee towns we grade on the CDC estimates behind the Health Grade. Its widest gap with Tennessee is food insecurity: 6.3% of its 3,788 adults worry about having enough food, against 16.2% statewide.
8% of adults smoke cigarettes in Forest Hills. Among 176 Tennessee towns, just 2 have a lower share of adults who sleep under 7 hours than Forest Hills. 16% of adults get no exercise outside work in Forest Hills.
| Forest Hills | Tennessee towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 8% | 19% | 14% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 20% | 17% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 39% | 36% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 26% | 39% | 35% |
| What stands out | Forest Hills | TN |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 6.3% | 16.2% |
| Fewer uninsured adults | 4.7% | 11.6% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 11.3% | 8.2% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The average commute for its 1,830 working residents takes 18.2 minutes, against 25.7 across Tennessee. 27.5% of workers work from home, against 12.9% across Tennessee.
6.7% of Forest Hills residents live below the poverty line. Since 2013, Forest Hills has added 70 jobs, to 656 in 2023. Forest Hills’ average trip to work is 18 minutes.
| Forest Hills | Tennessee towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $250,000 | $60,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 18 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 1.9% | 12% | 8% |
| Below the poverty line | 6.7% | 14% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Forest Hills has mild winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. The July high in Forest Hills is 89°F.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 51% of U.S. communities. Since 2010, 37 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Forest Hills.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
At 16.5 years of the Nashville metro’s $85K median household income, the typical home costs more against local pay than in 99% of Tennessee towns; that ratio is one input to its D− for cost of living. The median property tax bill is $7,279, against $1,442 across Tennessee, another input to its cost-of-living grade.
Only 1 of the 174 Tennessee towns we compare have a higher median rent than Forest Hills.
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Just 3 of its 5,884 acres are conserved, so there is little public open land in Forest Hills itself; its outdoors grade is D.
0.1 miles of trail in 1 park or preserve.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Percy Warner Park | — | 5 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
16 within 15 miles of the center of Forest Hills
About 3 of every 100 Forest Hills residents are enrolled in college, against 5 across Tennessee.
9 places in Forest Hills on the National Register of Historic Places.
City in Tennessee, United States
Forest Hills is an incorporated city in Davidson County, Tennessee that operates its own municipal government under a general law manager–commission charter. Although Forest Hills is within Davidson County, it is one of several smaller “satellite cities” that retain independent municipal governance rather than being fully governed by the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County. When Nashville and Davidson County consolidated their governments in 1963 to create a single metropolitan government, cities such as Forest Hills were allowed to keep their existing charters and municipal authorities, including their own mayor and commissioners, while still cooperatively receiving ce…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
2 towns share a border with Forest Hills.
| Town | TN rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forest Hills | #95 | C | D− | — | D | A+ |
| Belle Meade | #39 | B | D | A− | D | A+ |
| Oak Hill | #74 | C+ | D | — | D | A+ |
Forest Hills and Oak Hill report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Forest Hills with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Forest Hills grades C overall, better than 26% of U.S. towns and #95 of 175 in Tennessee. It grades A+ for health and D for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a D−.
Yes. The typical home is worth about $1,413,000, 327% above the Tennessee typical home. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades D−.
