Welcome to Phoenix!
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Phoenix was incorporated as a city on February 5, 1881. It is the capital, largest city and largest metropolitan area in the state of Arizona in the southwestern United States, 150 miles (241 km) northwest of Tucson. It is also the county seat of Maricopa County and the principal city of the Phoenix metropolitan area. Phoenix is appropriately called Hoodzo (which translates to, "the place is hot," in the Navajo language) and Fiinigis in the Western Apache language.
The following is a statement of the number of people living in Phoenix by decades: 1890, 3,152; 1900, 5,544; 1910, 11,134; 1920, 29,053; 1940, 65,414. Today, Phoenix is the sixth-largest city in the U.S., with a population of 1,321,045 (according to the 2000 U.S. Census); 2004 estimates of the population are approximately 1,418,041. The Phoenix Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is currently the fourteenth largest MSA of the United States, with a population of 3,251,876 (according to the 2000 U.S. Census); with a 2004 estimate of 3,790,000. It ranks as the eighth fastest growing metropolitan area in the U.S.
Phoenix is also the largest capital city by population in the U.S. (including Washington, DC), and the third largest capital city by area in the U.S. (behind Juneau, AK and Oklahoma City, OK).