Skip to content
RADON411

Locations and reports

Radon in Nashville, Tennessee

EPA puts Davidson County, where Nashville is, in Zone 1, its highest radon zone, and 27.4% of its 146 reported radon tests (2023) were at or above 4 pCi/L. Homes with elevated levels occur in all three zones, so only a test measures yours.

Data checked By Radon411Methodology

How to test this homeFind a certified tester

  • Share at 4+ pCi/L

    27.4%

    2.5 pts above TN

    Davidson
    27.4%
    Tennessee
    24.9%

    Davidson, 4th of 15 in TN, 2023

  • Median result

    2.2pCi/L

    Below action level

    Davidson
    2.2 pCi/L
    EPA
    4.0 pCi/L

    Midpoint of Davidson's tests, 2023

  • Nearest county

    16.5%

    Williamson, 20 miles

    Williamson
    16.5%
    Davidson
    27.4%

    115 tests, 2023

  • EPA radon zone

    Zone 1

    Highest potential

    1. Zone 1
    2. 2
    3. 3

    1 highest, 3 lowest

    Davidson, where Nashville is

  • Tests reported

    146

    In Davidson

    Davidson
    146
    Williamson
    115

    Reported to CDC before any fix, 2023

Read a result for Nashville

Starts at Davidson County's median, 2.2 pCi/L

2.2pCi/L

EPA’s own thresholds; the figures are the area’s, never this home’s.

EPA’s reading of 2.2 pCi/L

Between 2 and 4 pCi/L

  1. Under 20 to 1.9 pCi/L
  2. 2 to 4consider a fix
  3. 4 and aboveEPA says fix it

This result is between 2 and 4 pCi/L. EPA recommends considering a fix when the level is between 2 and 4 pCi/L. Davidson County's median reported result, 2023.

Interpret this readingWhat a fix costs

The data

Nashville, What is published

What is published for Nashville

Information:

Every figure for Nashville is a county's

Radon data is published by county, not by city, so for Nashville it is Davidson County's: its EPA zone (Zone 1) and the 146 tests reported to CDC for 2023. Only a test tells you about one home.

Nashville covers 476 square miles of land, all of it in Davidson County. About 721,074 people live there, 1,516 to the square mile.

Nashville, Counties

The county Nashville lies in

Measured

Davidson County's EPA zone and the figures CDC publishes for it, 2023.

Davidson CountyZone 1Highest predicted potential

27.4%
Reported tests at or above 4 pCi/L
2.2 pCi/L
Median reported result
146 tests
Tests reported to CDC
2
Annual years on file

Davidson County ranks 4th of 15 Tennessee counties with 30 or more tests for that period, 2.5 points above the 24.9% pooled across Tennessee's counties, 6.0 points below the national pool of 33.4%.

Measured from the middle of Nashville, the nearest counties with a CDC figure for 2023 are Williamson County (20 miles, 16.5% of 115 tests), Wilson County (27 miles, 2.4% of 82 tests) and Sumner County (27 miles, 20.0% of 30 tests). Across the 8 nearest, the share at or above 4 pCi/L runs from 2.4% to 40.2%; the farthest of them, Anderson County, is 145 miles away at 16.2%.

No business in the directory gives Nashville as its address; the Tennessee list covers it. Tennessee's other cities with a page of their own: Knoxville, Chattanooga, Cleveland and Johnson City.

The counties around Nashville

By distance from the middle of Nashville; counties with 30 or more tests.

Nearest counties to Nashville with 30 or more tests
CountyDistanceTestsAt or above 4 pCi/LMedian
Williamson County20 mi11516.5%1.3 pCi/L
Wilson County27 mi822.4%0.9 pCi/L
Sumner County27 mi3020.0%1.4 pCi/L
Rutherford County31 mi5020.0%1.6 pCi/L
Hamilton County114 mi1692.4%0.7 pCi/L
Bradley County129 mi10525.7%2.2 pCi/L
Loudon County142 mi8240.2%3.0 pCi/L
Anderson County145 mi3716.2%1.4 pCi/L

Predicted: EPA Map of Radon Zones, by county. Measured: CDC tracking data, by county, 2023.

Nashville, Geology

The ground under Nashville

Predicted

USGS's geologic map puts all of Nashville's mapped land in one class: high radon potential. The map puts 86.0% of Nashville in the area it calls Nashville Basin and 13.9% in Cherty Highland. USGS gives the first a radon index of 14 and the second 12, both in the high band (12 to 17).

USGS's geologic areas under Nashville
AreaThe rock, in USGS's wordsPotentialRadon indexShare of land
Nashville BasinMississippian Limestone.High1486.0%
Cherty HighlandCherty dolostone.High1213.9%

Names, descriptions and indexes: U.S. Geological Survey, Geologic Radon Potential Map (2025). Shares: Radon411, from the map cut to the boundary.

Nashville beside its county and Tennessee

All of Nashville, like all of Davidson County, is rated high. Nashville has more high-potential ground than Tennessee as a whole: 100% of its land against 47.2%.

Share of land by USGS radon potential: Nashville, the county it lies in and Tennessee
AreaEPA zoneLow potentialModerate potentialHigh potential
NashvilleBy countyNoneNone100%
Davidson CountyZone 1NoneNone100%
Tennessee95 counties, pooled by land areaVaries30.5%22.3%47.2%

The map rates the ground, not the air in any home.

Nashville, Homes

Homes in Nashville

Nashville has 333,074 homes, and many share a building: 33% are in buildings of five or more, 50% are detached houses, against 50% across Davidson County. Half of its homes were built before 1985, close to Davidson County's 1985: 19% date from before 1960 and 32% from 2000 or later. 53% of occupied homes are lived in by their owner (Davidson County: 53%); in the rest a tenant can run a test, but a fix is the landlord's to make.

Homes in Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee, 2019 to 2023
HomesNashvilleDavidson CountyTennessee
Housing units333,074345,0263,095,472
Detached houses50%50%68%
In buildings of 5 or more33%33%14%
Mobile homes1%1%8%
Built before 196019%19%18%
Built since 200032%32%29%
Middle year built198519851986
Owner-occupied53%53%67%

Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2019 to 2023: estimates from a sample of homes, looser for a small place. Shares by Radon411.

Local help

Nashville, Local resources

Local resources for Nashville

Who to ask in Tennessee: its radon program, test kits and professionals.

The program's own words on licensing are on the Tennessee page.

What it means

Nashville, Questions

Questions about radon in Nashville

What radon zone is Nashville in?

Nashville takes its zone from Davidson County, which EPA puts in Zone 1, the map's highest class: a predicted county average above 4 pCi/L.

What are radon levels in Nashville?

Around Nashville, 27.4% of 146 tests reported from Davidson County for 2023 reached 4 pCi/L or more, so a high result is no surprise here. The median reported result was 2.2 pCi/L.

Should I test my home in Nashville?

Yes. Davidson County reported about 40 of its 146 tests at or above 4 pCi/L. That is above Tennessee's pooled 24.9%, and ranks Davidson County 4th of the 15 Tennessee counties with 30 or more tests. Which homes they were, no map can say. How to test a home.

What ground is Nashville built on, as far as radon goes?

86.0% of Nashville sits on what USGS's map calls "Nashville Basin", rated high for radon potential, radon index 14; another 13.9% is "Cherty Highland", in the same class.

Is radon higher in the counties around Nashville?

It depends which way you go. 1 of the 8 nearest counties with a figure report a larger share than Davidson County's 27.4% and 7 a smaller one: from Hamilton County (2.4%, 114 miles off) to Loudon County (40.2%, 142 miles off).

The answers use the published figures of Davidson County, the county Nashville lies in.

Explore