Phoenix ( FEE-niks; Navajo: Hoozdo, [xò?ztò]; O'odham: S-ki:kigk; Spanish: Fénix Walapai: Banyà:nyuwá) is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States and the most populous state capital in the country.Phoenix is the most populous city of the Phoenix metropolitan area, also known as the Valley of the Sun, which in turn is part of the Salt River Valley. The metropolitan area is the 10th-largest by population in the United States, with approximately 4.85 million people as of 2020, making it the largest in the Southwestern United States. Phoenix, the seat of Maricopa County, is the largest city by area in Arizona, with an area of 517.9 square miles (1,341 km2), and is also the 11th largest city by area in the United States. It is the largest metropolitan area of the Arizona Sun Corridor megaregion.
Phoenix was settled in 1867 as an agricultural community near the confluence of the Salt and Gila Rivers and was incorporated as a city in 1881.
