Phoenix is the capital and most populous city in Arizona, with 1,660,272 people (as of 2018). It is also the fifth most populous city in the United States, and the only state capital with a population of more than one million residents. The city averaged a four percent annual population growth rate over a 40-year period from the mid-1960s to the mid-2000s. This growth rate slowed during the Great Recession of 2007–09, and has rebounded slowly. Phoenix is the cultural center of the state of Arizona.
Geography
Phoenix is in the southwestern United States, in the south-central portion of Arizona; about halfway between Tucson to the southeast and Flagstaff to the north. By car, the city is approximately 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of the US-Mexico border at Sonoyta and 180 mi (290 km) north of the border at Nogales. The metropolitan area is known as the “Valley of the Sun” due to its location in the Salt River Valley. It lies at a mean elevation of 1,086 feet (331 m), in the northern reaches of the Sonoran Desert. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 517.9 square miles (1,341 km²). 516.7 square miles (1,338 km²) of it is land, and 1.2 square miles (0.6 km², or 0.2%) of it is water.