Las Vegas

Las Vegas
City
City of Las Vegas
From top, left to right: Downtown Las Vegas, World Market Center, The STRAT, Las Vegas Strip, Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Clark County Government Center.
Flag Seal
Etymology: Spanish: Las vegas (English: The meadows)
Nickname(s):  "Vegas", "Sin City", "City of Lights", "The Gambling Capital of the World", "The Entertainment Capital of the World", "Capital of Second Chances", "The Marriage Capital of the World", "The Silver City", "America's Playground"
Interactive map of Las Vegas
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	Carolyn Goodman (I)
• City Council	Members Brian Knudsen (D) Victoria Seaman (R) Olivia Diaz (D) Stavros S. Anthony (R) Cedric Crear (D) Michele Fiore (R)
• City manager	Scott D. Adams
Area
• City	141.84 sq mi (367.36 km2)
• Land	141.78 sq mi (367.22 km2)
• Water	0.05 sq mi (0.14 km2)
Elevation	2,001 ft (610 m)
Population  (2020)
• City	641,903
• Rank	26th in the United States 1st in Nevada
• Density	4,527.46/sq mi (1,748.01/km2)
• Metro	2,265,461 (29th)
Demonym(s)	Las Vegan
Time zone	UTC−8 (PST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−7 (PDT)
Area code(s)	702 & 725
FIPS code	32-40000
GNIS feature ID	847388
Major airport	LAS
Interstate Highways	I-15, I-515
Other major highways	US 93, US 95, NV 159, NV 599, NV 604, CC 215
Website	lasvegasnevada.gov

Las Vegas is a city in the American state of Nevada. There were 640,932 people living in the city in 2015, 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. Carolyn Goodman became the mayor in 2011.

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.

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. 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. 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 is the most common Asian ancestries.