Incorporated on December 27, , [ 8 ] it is the 26th-largest metropolitan area in the United States, the 11th-most populous city in the United States, [ 9 ] the fourth-most populous city in the state after Houston , San Antonio , and Dallas , and the second-most populous state capital city after Phoenix , the capital of Arizona. This combined metropolitan region of San AntonioβAustin has approximately 5 million people. As of , Austin had an estimated population of ,, [ 16 ] up from , at the census.
Residents of Austin are known as Austinites. The city also adopted " Silicon Hills " as a nickname in the s due to a rapid influx of technology and development companies. In recent years, some Austinites have adopted the unofficial slogan " Keep Austin Weird ", [ 21 ] which refers to the desire to protect small, unique, and local businesses from being overrun by large corporations. Emerging from a strong economic focus on government and education, since the s, Austin has become a center for technology and business.
IBM followed in , opening a facility to produce its Selectric typewriters. Texas Instruments was set up in Austin two years later, and Motorola now NXP Semiconductors started semiconductor chip manufacturing in With regard to education, Austin is the home of the University of Texas at Austin , one of the largest universities in the U.
The area's earliest known inhabitants lived during the late Pleistocene Ice Age and are linked to the Clovis culture around BC over 11, years ago , based on evidence found throughout the area and documented at the much-studied Gault Site , midway between Georgetown and Fort Cavazos.
When settlers arrived from Europe, the Tonkawa tribe inhabited the area. The Comanches and Lipan Apaches were also known to travel through the area. During the s, pioneers began to settle the area in central Austin along the Colorado River. Spanish forts were established in what are now Bastrop and San Marcos. In β, Texans fought and won independence from Mexico. Texas thus became an independent country with its own president, congress, and monetary system.
