Gadsden is a city in and the county seat of Etowah County in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is located on the Coosa River about northeast of Birmingham and southwest of Chattanooga, Tennessee. It is the primary city of the Gadsden Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of 103,931. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 36,856, with an estimated population of 35,000 in 2019. It is the 2nd largest city (after Rome GA) in the triangular area defined by the interstate highways between Atlanta, Birmingham, and Chattanooga.