Austin is the capital city of Texas. It is the 11th-most populous city in the U.S., the fourth-most-populous city in Texas, and the second-most-populous state capital city (after Phoenix, Arizona). It is also the fastest growing large city in the U.S. and the southernmost state capital in the contiguous US. As of the U.S. Census Bureau's July 1, 2018 estimate, Austin had a population of 964,254. The city is the cultural and economic center of the Austin–Round Rock metropolitan statistical area, which had an estimated population of 2,168,316 as of July 1, 2018. U.S. News & World Report named Austin the No. 1 place to live in the U.S. for 2017 and 2018.
In the 1830s, pioneers began to settle the area in central Austin along the Colorado River. In 1839, the site was chosen to replace Houston as the capital of the Republic of Texas and was incorporated under the name "Waterloo". Shortly afterward, the name was changed to Austin in honor of Stephen F. Austin, the "Father of Texas" and the republic's first secretary of state.
A number of Fortune 500 companies have headquarters or regional offices in Austin including, 3M, Amazon.com, Apple Inc., Google, IBM, Intel, Oracle Corporation, Texas Instruments, and Whole Foods Market; Dell's worldwide headquarters is located in the nearby suburb of Round Rock. 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.
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