Arizona, constituent state of the United States of America. Arizona is the sixth largest state in the country in terms of area. Its population has always been predominantly urban, particularly since the mid-20th century, when urban and suburban areas began growing rapidly at the expense of the countryside. Some scholars believe that the state’s name comes from a Basque phrase meaning “place of oaks,” while others attribute it to a Tohono O’odham (Papago) Indian phrase meaning “place of the young (or little) spring.” Arizona achieved statehood on February 14, 1912, the last of the 48 conterminous United States to be admitted to the union.

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Arizona is a land of contradictions. Although widely reputed for its hot low-elevation desert covered with cacti and creosote bushes, more than half of the state lies at an elevation of at least 4,000 feet (1,200 metres) above sea level, and it possesses the largest stand of evergreen ponderosa pine trees in the world. Arizona is well known for its waterless tracts of desert, but, thanks to many large man-made lakes, it has many more miles of shoreline than its reputation might suggest. Such spectacular landforms as the Grand Canyon and the Painted Desert have become international symbols of the region’s ruggedness, yet Arizona’s environment is so delicate that in many ways it is more threatened by pollution than are New York City and Los Angeles. Its romantic reputation as a wild desert and a place of old-fashioned close-to-the-earth simplicity is at variance with the fact that after the 1860s the state’s economy became industrial and technological long before it was pastoral or agrarian.

Sunset at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, southern Arizona. © Digital Vision/Getty Images

Tucson, Ariz. Jeremy Woodhouse/Getty Images

Arizona is located in the southwestern quadrant of the conterminous states, bordered by California to the west, Nevada to the northwest, Utah to the north, New Mexico to the east, and the Mexican state of Sonora to the south. The Colorado River forms the boundary with California and Nevada. Phoenix, situated in the south-central part of the state, is the capital and largest city. Area 113,990 square miles (295,233 square km). Population (2010) 6,392,017; (2019 est.) 7,278,717.