Decatur ( ) is a town in Meigs County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 1,563 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Meigs County.
History
Decatur was founded in May 1836 as a county seat for Meigs County, which had been formed that same year. The initial for the town were donated by James Lillard and Leonard Brooks. Decatur is named after Commodore Stephen Decatur Jr., an early 19th-century American naval officer renowned for his exploits in the First Barbary War, the Second Barbary War, and the War of 1812.
Geography
Decatur is located at (35.518871, -84.793201). The town is situated at the western base of No Pone Ridge, an elongate ridge characteristic of the Appalachian Ridge-and-Valley Province. Just west of Decatur, the Tennessee River flows around a blunt peninsula known as Armstrong Bend. This section of the river is part of Chickamauga Lake.
Decatur is situated around the junction of Tennessee State Route 30, which connects the town to Athens to the east and Dayton to the west, and Tennessee State Route 58, which connects Decatur to Kingston to the north and Chattanooga to the south. Interstate 75 passes approximately east of Decatur.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all of it land.
Demographics
2020 census
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:right"
|+Decatur racial composition
!scope="col"| Race
!scope="col"| Number
!scope="col"| Percentage
|-
!scope="row"| White (non-Hispanic)
| 1,429
| 91.43%
|-
!scope="row"| Black or African American (non-Hispanic)
| 30
| 1.92%
|-
!scope="row"| Native American
| 11
| 0.7%
|-
!scope="row"| Asian
| 4
| 0.26%
|-
!scope="row"| Other/Mixed
| 69
| 4.41%
|-
!scope="row"| Hispanic or Latino
| 20
| 1.28%
|}
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 1,563 people, 586 households, and 416 families residing in the town.
2000 census
As of the census