Murfreesboro is a city in, and county seat of, Rutherford County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 165,430 according to the 2023 census, up from 108,755 residents certified in 2010. Murfreesboro is located in the Nashville metropolitan area of Middle Tennessee, 34 miles (55 km) southeast of downtown Nashville. It served as the state capital from 1818 to 1826. Today, it is the largest suburb of Nashville and the sixth-most populous city in Tennessee. The city is both the center of population and the geographic center of Tennessee. Since the 1990s, Murfreesboro has been Tennessee's fastest-growing major city and one of the fastest-growing cities in the country. Murfreesboro is home to Middle Tennessee State University, one of the largest undergraduate universities in the state of Tennessee, with 20,540 total students as of fall 2024.