Texas

Texas (, also locally /’teksIz/; Spanish: Texas, Tejas) is a state in the South Central region of the United States. It covers 268,596 sq. miles (695,662km ²) and has more than 29.1 millions residents in 2020. It is the second-largest U.S. State by area (after Alaska) as well as 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 Texas city and fourth-largest U.S. city, while San Antonio is second in Texas and seventh in the U.S. San Antonio is second in Texas and seventh in the U.S. San Antonio is third in Texas and seventh in the U.S. respectively. Dallas-Fort Worth is fourth and Greater Houston fifth largest metropolitan statistical areas in the United States, respectively. 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’.

Because of its size and geologic features, such as the Balcones fault, Texas has diverse landscapes that are common to both the U.S. Southern region and the Southwestern region. Texas is often associated with the U.S. Southwest deserts. However, less than 10% of Texas’s land is desert. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, and finally the desert and mountains of the Big Bend.