Bristol is a city in Sullivan County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 27,147 at the 2020 census. It is the twin city of Bristol, Virginia, which lies directly across the state line between Tennessee and Virginia. Bristol, TN and Bristol, VA are two separate, though unified, twin cities. They share a unified metropolitan area, meaning they function as one community with a shared State Street as their main dividing line, but have separate governments, police departments, and libraries. It is a principal city in the Kingsport–Bristol metropolitan area, which had a population of 307,614 in 2020. The metro area is a component of the larger Tri-Cities region of Tennessee and Virginia, with a population of 508,260 in 2020.