Back Austin, Texas Afrikaans ኦስቲን፣ ቴክሳስ Amharic Austin AN Ēastūnburh ANG أوستن (تكساس) Arabic اوستن (تكساس) ARZ Austin AST Ostin (Texas) Azerbaijani آستین، تگزاس AZB Austin BAR

Austin, Texas

"Austin, United States" redirects here. For other places, see Austin (disambiguation) § United States.
"Austin Texas" redirects here. For The Johnny Winter album, see The Progressive Blues Experiment.
Not to be confused with Austin County, Texas.

Austin
State capital
Downtown Austin skyline
Texas State Capitol
Congress Avenue Bridge
Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium
Main Building at the University of Texas at Austin
Paramount Theatre
Laguna Gloria
Flag of Austin
Flag
Official seal of Austin
Seal
Official logo of Austin
Coat of arms
Nicknames: 
Live Music Capital of the World, Silicon Hills, ATX, City of the Violet Crown
Motto: 
Keep Austin Weird (unofficial)
Map
Map
Map
Map
Location within Travis County, Texas
Austin is located in Texas
Austin
Austin
Location in Texas
Austin is located in the United States
Austin
Austin
Location in the United States
Coordinates: 30°16′02″N 97°44′35″W / 30.26722°N 97.74306°W / 30.26722; -97.74306
Country United States
State Texas
CountiesTravis, Hays, Williamson
Settled1835 (1835)
IncorporatedDecember 27, 1839 (1839-12-27)
Named forStephen F. Austin
Government
 • TypeCouncil–manager
 • MayorKirk Watson (D)[a]
 • City Council
Members
  • Natasha Harper-Madison (D)
  • Vanessa Fuentes (D)
  • Jose Velasquez (D)
  • Jose "Chito" Vela (D)
  • Ryan Alter (D)
  • Mackenzie Kelly (R)
  • Leslie Pool (D)
  • Paige Ellis (D)
  • Zohaib "Zo" Qadri (D)
  • Alison Alter (D)
 • City managerT.C. Broadnax[1]
Area
[2]
 • State capital326.51 sq mi (845.66 km2)
 • Land319.94 sq mi (828.64 km2)
 • Water6.57 sq mi (17.02 km2)
 • Metro
4,285.70 sq mi (11,099.91 km2)
Elevation
[3]
607 ft (185 m)
Population
 (2022)U.S. Census Estimates
 • State capital974,447 Increase
 • Rank32nd in North America
11th in the United States
4th in Texas
 • Density3,006.36/sq mi (1,160.76/km2)
 • Urban
1,809,888 (US: 29th)
 • Urban density2,921.0/sq mi (1,127.8/km2)
 • Metro
[4]
2,473,275 (US: 26th)
DemonymAustinite
GDP
[5]
 • Metro$222.054 billion (2022)
Time zoneUTC−6 (CST)
 • Summer (DST)UTC−5 (CDT)
ZIP Codes
73301, 73344, 78681, 78701–78705, 78708–78739, 78741–78742, 78744–78768, 78772–78774, 78778–78779, 78783, 78799
Area codes512 & 737
FIPS code48-05000[6]
GNIS feature ID2409761[3]
Websiteaustintexas.gov Edit this at Wikidata

Austin (/ˈɔːstɪn/ AW-stin)[7] is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas and the seat and most populous city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839,[8] it is the 26th-largest metropolitan area in the United States, the 11th-most populous city in the United States,[9] the fourth-most populous city in the state after Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas, and the second-most populous state capital city after Phoenix, the capital of Arizona.[10] It has been one of the fastest growing large cities in the United States since 2010.[11][12][13] Downtown Austin and Downtown San Antonio are approximately 80 miles (129 km) apart, and both fall along the Interstate 35 corridor. This combined metropolitan region of San Antonio–Austin has approximately 5 million people.[14] Austin is the southernmost state capital in the contiguous United States and is considered a Gamma + level global city as categorized by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.[15]

As of 2024, Austin had an estimated population of 984,567,[16] up from 961,855 at the 2020 census.[17] The city is the cultural and economic center of the Austin–Round Rock metropolitan statistical area, which had an estimated population of 2,473,275 as of July 1, 2023. Located in Central Texas within the greater Texas Hill Country, it is home to numerous lakes, rivers, and waterways, including Lady Bird Lake and Lake Travis on the Colorado River, Barton Springs, McKinney Falls, and Lake Walter E. Long.

Residents of Austin are known as Austinites.[18] They include a diverse mix of government employees, college students, musicians, high-tech workers, and blue-collar workers. The city's official slogan promotes Austin as "The Live Music Capital of the World", a reference to the city's many musicians and live music venues, as well as the long-running PBS TV concert series Austin City Limits.[19][20] Austin is the site of South by Southwest (SXSW), an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals. The city also adopted "Silicon Hills" as a nickname in the 1990s due to a rapid influx of technology and development companies. In recent years, some Austinites have adopted the unofficial slogan "Keep Austin Weird",[21] which refers to the desire to protect small, unique, and local businesses from being overrun by large corporations.[22] Since the late 19th century, Austin has also been known as the "City of the Violet Crown", because of the colorful glow of light across the hills just after sunset.[23]

Emerging from a strong economic focus on government and education, since the 1990s, Austin has become a center for technology and business.[24][25] The technology roots in Austin can be traced back to the 1960s, when defense electronics contractor Tracor (now BAE Systems) began operations in the city in 1962. IBM followed in 1967, opening a facility to produce its Selectric typewriters. Texas Instruments was set up in Austin two years later, and Motorola (now NXP Semiconductors) started semiconductor chip manufacturing in 1974. A number of Fortune 500 companies have headquarters or regional offices in Austin, including 3M, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Agilent Technologies, Amazon, Apple, Dell, Facebook (Meta), General Motors, Google, IBM, Intel, NXP Semiconductors, Oracle, Tesla, and Texas Instruments.[citation needed] With regard to education, Austin is the home of the University of Texas at Austin, one of the largest universities in the U.S., with over 50,000 students.[26] In 2021, Austin became home to the Austin FC, the first (and currently only) major professional sports team in the city.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference CityGovernment was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference 2019 Gazetteer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Austin, Texas
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference 2020Pop was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Total Gross Domestic Product for Austin-Round Rock, TX (MSA)". fred.stlouisfed.org. Archived from the original on January 10, 2024. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Census 2010 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Wells, John C. (2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0.
  8. ^ "City of Austin - Austin History Center: When was Austin founded?". Austin Public Library.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Statesman Prop A 2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ "Top 50 Cities in the U.S. by Population and Rank". Infoplease. Archived from the original on June 15, 2011. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
  11. ^ Weissmann, Jordan (May 21, 2015). "Population growth in U.S. cities: Austin is blowing away the competition". Slate. Archived from the original on October 13, 2018. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
  12. ^ "America's Fastest Growing Cities 2016". Forbes. January 14, 2017. Archived from the original on August 28, 2018. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
  13. ^ "Southern and Western Regions Experienced Rapid Growth This Decade". United States Census Bureau. May 21, 2020. Archived from the original on October 15, 2022. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
  14. ^ Egan, John (September 6, 2022). "Booming Texas region could rival Dallas-Fort Worth as 'next great U.S. metroplex,' mayor says". CultureMap. Archived from the original on December 14, 2023. Retrieved December 26, 2023.
  15. ^ "The World According to GaWC 2020". lboro.ac.uk. Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Archived from the original on August 24, 2020. Retrieved November 14, 2021.
  16. ^ "Austin, Texas Population 2024". worldpopulationreview.com. Retrieved September 26, 2024.
  17. ^ "Austin's Population Continues Another Decade of Growth According to U.S. Census Bureau | AustinTexas.gov". www.austintexas.gov. Archived from the original on March 17, 2022. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference Long 2010 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference motto was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference atx_motto was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ "MetroSeeker.com". MetroSeeker.com. Archived from the original on November 20, 2011. Retrieved November 16, 2011.
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference weird was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ "Just what is a violet crown?". June 21, 2011. Archived from the original on April 2, 2019. Retrieved August 19, 2016.
  24. ^ "Brief History of Austin". Austin Public Library. Archived from the original on January 25, 2021. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
  25. ^ Cite error: The named reference austin history was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  26. ^ "University of Texas at Austin". U.S. News & World Report - Best Colleges Ranking. Archived from the original on January 30, 2022. Retrieved March 15, 2021.

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