Las Vegas

This article is about the city in Nevada, USA. For other uses, see Las Vegas (disambiguation).

Las Vegas is a city in the American state of Nevada. There were 641,903 people living in the city in 2020, and more than 2,000,000 people living in the metropolitan area. It is the largest city in Nevada. Las Vegas is also the county seat of Clark County.

Las Vegas
City
Downtown Las Vegas World Market Center The Strat Las Vegas Strip Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health Clark County Government Center
Flag Seal
Etymology: from Spanish las vegas 'the meadows'
Nicknames:  "Vegas", "Sin City", "City of Lights", "The Gambling Capital of the World",[1] "The Entertainment Capital of the World", "Capital of Second Chances",[2] "The Marriage Capital of the World", "The Silver City", "America's Playground"
Show Las Vegas Show Clark County Show Nevada Show the United States
Coordinates: 36°10′30″N 115°08′11″W
Country	United States
State	Nevada
County	Clark
Founded	May 15, 1905
Incorporated	March 16, 1911
Government
• Type	Council–manager
• Mayor	Shelley Berkley (D)
• Mayor Pro Tem	Brian Knudsen (D)
• City council	Members Brian Knudsen (D) Victoria Seaman (R) Olivia Diaz (D) Francis Allen-Palenske (R) Shondra Summers-Armstrong (D) Nancy Brune (D)
• City manager	Mike Janssen
Area [3]
• City	141.91 sq mi (367.53 km2)
• Land	141.85 sq mi (367.40 km2)
• Water	0.05 sq mi (0.14 km2)
Elevation	2,001 ft (610 m)
Population  (2020)
• City	641,903
• Rank	24th in the United States 1st in Nevada
• Density	4,525.16/sq mi (1,747.17/km2)
• Urban	2,196,623 (US: 21st)
• Urban density	5,046.3/sq mi (1,948.4/km2)
• Metro [4]	2,265,461 (US: 29th)
Demonym	Las Vegan
GDP [5]
• Las Vegas (MSA)	$160.7 billion (2022)
Time zone	UTC−08:00 (PST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−07:00 (PDT)
ZIP Codes	89044, 89054, 891xx
Area code	702 & 725
FIPS code	32-40000
GNIS feature ID	847388
Website	lasvegasnevada.gov

Las Vegas is famous for its casinos and resort hotels. It is one of the world's most popular places for tourism.

Politics

Las Vegas leans to the left. Three of the four congressional districts in Nevada include parts of Las Vegas, and all three congresspeople representing those districts are Democrats from Las Vegas.^[source?]

History

Native Americans were the first to reside in the area, specifically the Paiute tribe. It was first called Las Vegas (which means The Meadows in the Spanish language) by the Spanish. The city is known for its dry weather, as is the rest of southern Nevada. It is surrounded by desert.

The US Army built Fort Baker there in 1864. Las Vegas has natural springs, where people used to stop for water when they were going to Los Angeles or other places in California.

In 1905, 110 acres owned by William A. Clark, on which he built a railroad to Southern California were auctioned and Las Vegas was founded as a railroad town.^[6] Las Vegas officially became a city in 1911.

The well-known Welcome to the Fabulous Las Vegas Sign.

The Hispanic population in Las Vegas is growing and has rapidly increased. Most Latino Las Vegas residents are of Mexican, Cuban and Salvadoran descent.^[7] Las Vegas also has a small Puerto Rican, Guatemalan, Spaniard, Peruvian, Colombian, Honduran, Nicaraguan and Argentine population. The most common European ancestries in Las Vegas are German, Irish, Italian, Polish, French, Scottish, Russian, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch and Welsh. Filipino, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, Indian and Chinese are the most common Asian ancestries.^[8]

People

There is a Mexican, Chinese, Greek, German, Korean, Japanese, Armenian, Arab, Italian, Jewish, African-American, Iranian, Croatian, Polish, Filipino, Indian, Ethiopian and Chilean community in Las Vegas.^[9]

Las Vegas has a growing Hispanic population. Many Hispanics in Las Vegas are of Mexican, Cuban and Salvadoran ancestry.^[10]

Most of the foreign-born population were born in Mexico, the Philippines and El Salvador.^[11]