Texas

Texas (, also locally /’teksIz/; Spanish: Texas, Tejas) is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km²), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by both area (after Alaska) and population (after California). Texas shares borders with the states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas to the south and southwest; and has a coastline with the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast.

Houston is the most populous city in Texas and the fourth-largest in the U.S., while San Antonio is the second most populous in the state and seventh-largest in the U.S. Dallas-Fort Worth and Greater Houston are, respectively, the fourth- and fifth-largest metropolitan statistical areas in the country. El Paso and Austin are other major cities. Texas is known as the Lone Star State because of its former independence and the reminder of the state’s struggle to become independent from Mexico. The Lone Star can be found on the Texas state flag and on the Texas state seal. The origin of Texas’s name is from the Caddo word taysha’ meaning ‘friends’.