Elizabethton is the county seat of Carter County, Tennessee, United States. Elizabethton is also the historical site both of the first independent American government known as the Watauga Association (1772), located west of both the Eastern Continental Divide and the original thirteen British colonies.

Elizabethton is also the historical site of the Transylvania Purchase (1775), and a major historic muster site for the Battle of Kings Mountain (1780).

The population of Elizabethton was enumerated at 13,372 during the 2000 U.S. Decennial Census.

Elizabethton is centrally located within the "Tri-Cities" area (encompassed by Bristol, Johnson City, and Kingsport) of Northeast Tennessee.[5][6]

Time offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC): UTC-5 (Eastern Standard Time).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 9.4 square miles (24.3 km), of which, 9.2 square miles (23.7 km) of it is land and 0.2 square miles (0.6 km) of it (2.35%) is water.

The elevation at Elizabethton Municipal Airport is 1,593 feet (486 m) ASL (the highest point of elevation in Carter County is at Roan Mountain with an elevation of 6,285 feet (1,916 m) ASL) and the airport is located on the eastern side of the city along State Highway 91 Stoney Creek Exit.[8][9] Elizabethton is also connected to larger commercial, shuttle, and cargo flights out of Tri-Cities Regional Airport located adjacent to the main campus of Northeast State Technical Community College at nearby Blountville, Tennessee.

Lynn Mountain reaches 2,380 feet (730 m) ASL at the summit (36.350°N, 82.191°W) and is located directly across the U.S. Highway 19-E from the downtown Elizabethton business district.

Elizabethton also shares a contiguous western border with Johnson City.