Name
Houston History Government Department
History of Houston, TX
Houston, Texas is the largest city in the state and the fourth-largest in the United States. Located in Harris County on the Gulf Coast, Houston has a rich and varied history that dates back to pre-Columbian times. Native American tribes, including the Karankawa, Akokisa, and Atakapan, lived in the region for thousands of years before Europeans arrived.
Houston ( ; HEW-stən) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Houston is located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico; it is the seat and largest city of Harris County and the principal city of the Greater Houston metropolitan area, which is the fifth-most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States and the second-most populous in Texas after Dallas–Fort Worth. With a population of 2,302,878 in 2022, Houston is the fourth-most populous city in the United States after New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and the seventh-most populous city in North America. Houston is the southeast anchor of the greater megaregion known as the Texas Triangle.Comprising a land area of 640.4 square miles (1,659 km2), Houston is the ninth-most expansive city in the United States (including consolidated city-counties). It is the largest city in the United States by total area whose government is not consolidated with a county, parish, or borough.