Las Vegas is the largest city in Nevada and one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States. It is famous for its hotels, gambling casinos, and 24-hour entertainment. The city attracts many millions of visitors each year. Las Vegas lies in a valley in southern Nevada.
The city is the county seat of Clark County. It is the center of a fast-growing metropolitan area. Many people move to the Las Vegas area every month. Large areas of vacant desert in the valley are developed each year.
Las Vegas was founded as a water stop for steam locomotives on the rail line between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, Utah. The site consisted of grassland fed by springs, and the name of the city comes from two Spanish words meaning the meadows.
The city
Downtown Las Vegas.
The bright lights of two Las Vegas streets are world famous. Fremont Street, in downtown Las Vegas, is the major casino-hotel district within the city limits. The Las Vegas Strip, a portion of Las Vegas Boulevard just outside the city limits, is famous for its large resort hotels and casinos.
Las Vegas is home to many of the largest and most elaborate hotels in the world. The gigantic MGM Grand hotel and casino has over 5,000 guest rooms. The canals and landmarks of Venice, Italy, are re-created in great detail at the Venetian hotel and casino. The Sphere, a sphere-shaped entertainment venue wrapped with more than 1 million light-emitting diode (LED) screens, stands just east of the Venetian. Ancient Egypt comes to life at the Luxor, a pyramid-shaped hotel complete with a replica of the tomb of the famous King Tutankhamun. Other hotels feature replicas of the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty.
Metropolitan area.
The U.S. Census Bureau defines the Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas metropolitan area as Clark County in Nevada. About half of the urban area popularly referred to as Las Vegas is outside the city limits. Other large cities in Clark County include Henderson and North Las Vegas. Popular attractions near the city include Hoover Dam, one of the largest dams in the world; and Lake Mead, one of the world’s largest artificially created lakes and the main source of water for the metropolitan area. Engineers formed Lake Mead by building Hoover Dam across a canyon of the Colorado River.
People
Ethnic groups.
About half of the city’s residents are white, and about 15 percent are Black. People of Hispanic descent—who may be white, Black, or of mixed ancestry—make up approximately 35 percent of the city’s population and are the largest minority group in metropolitan Las Vegas. The city’s other population groups include people of Native American, Asian, or other ancestry. 
Education.
The Clark County School District operates public elementary and secondary schools in the Las Vegas area. The area also has a number of church-supported and other private schools.
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is the city’s best-known institution of higher education. Other schools of higher learning in the Las Vegas area include the College of Southern Nevada, Nevada State College, and Roseman University of Health Sciences.
Cultural life
The arts.
The Las Vegas Philharmonic and the Nevada Ballet Theatre are among the city’s many performing arts organizations. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, hosts an annual series of concerts by visiting orchestras. Hotels offer big-name entertainment and elaborate production shows.
Museums and libraries.
The Clark County Museum in nearby Henderson features exhibits on southern Nevada’s history. Interactive displays at the Discovery Children’s Museum provide fun facts about the sciences, arts, and humanities. The National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, also known as the Mob Museum, has exhibits about organized crime. The National Atomic Testing Museum has many exhibits, including a simulation of a nuclear test. Just west of downtown is Springs Preserve. The area is the home of the Nevada State Museum, which includes exhibits on the natural and cultural history of southern Nevada. Springs Preserve also offers galleries, gardens, performance spaces, trails, and other features.
The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District operates many branch libraries throughout the metropolitan area. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, also has a library.
Recreation.
Las Vegas is the home of the Raiders of the National Football League and the Golden Knights of the National Hockey League. The metropolitan area has many parks and golf courses. The city also hosts numerous world championship boxing and mixed martial arts matches and professional bowling tournaments. The National Finals Rodeo is held in Las Vegas every December.
Economy
Industry.
Las Vegas depends heavily on tourism and convention business. The tourist industry ranks as the city’s largest employer and generates more revenue than any other industry. The Las Vegas Convention Center is one of the largest convention facilities in the United States. Millions of people attend conventions in Las Vegas every year.
The U.S. government is also a major employer in the area. The Nevada National Security Site, a nuclear weapons testing facility operated by the U.S. Department of Energy, is north of Las Vegas. Also north of the city is Nellis Air Force Base, home of a precision flying group called the Thunderbirds, and the Air Force’s Nevada Test and Training Range.
Transportation and communication.
Las Vegas’s Harry Reid International Airport is the largest airport in Nevada. The city is also served by the Union Pacific Railroad and many trucking lines. A monorail system carries passengers between the Las Vegas Convention Center and several hotels and casinos on the Strip. Las Vegas has two daily newspapers, the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Las Vegas Sun. Numerous television and radio stations serve the city.
Government
Las Vegas has a council-manager form of government. The voters elect a mayor and six other council members to four-year terms. The council appoints a city manager to carry out its policies and administer the day-to-day operations of the city. The city’s chief sources of revenue include sales taxes, property taxes, and taxes on gambling.
Clark County is governed by seven commissioners who are elected to four-year terms. The commissioners select a county manager to administer county government.
History
Early days.
The Indigenous (native) Paiute people lived in what is now the Las Vegas area at the time white people arrived. The first non-Indigenous people to settle in the area were missionaries sent by Mormon leader Brigham Young in 1855. The Mormons created a settlement and tried to convert the Paiutes to their religious beliefs. The Mormons abandoned the area in 1858.
Las Vegas was founded in 1905 when a railroad company auctioned off land there. In 1910, the town had a population of about 1,000. It received a city charter in 1911.
Rapid growth.
Two developments in 1931 set the stage for rapid growth in Las Vegas. That year, the state legalized casino gambling. Also in 1931, construction began on Hoover Dam, which would supply water and electric power for much of the Pacific Southwest. The dam was dedicated in 1935.
Las Vegas’s population had passed 8,400 by 1940. Nellis Air Force Base began as a gunnery school in 1941, during World War II. Las Vegas’s first big gambling casino opened in 1946. By 1950, the city’s population had almost tripled, reaching nearly 25,000. To attract patrons to the casinos, Las Vegas hotels offered lavish entertainment. Many of the shows featured famous singers, comedians, or other performers, as well as chorus lines of beautiful women in elaborate costumes. By the mid-1950’s, gambling and entertainment had made Las Vegas one of the leading tourist attractions in the United States. 
By 1960, the city reached a population of about 64,000. The population nearly doubled over the next 10 years as the casino industry continued to prosper. The city’s growth prompted the development of the Southern Nevada Water Project (now the Robert B. Griffith Water Project) from 1967 to 1983 to pump more water from Lake Mead.
Recent developments.
Las Vegas’s population rose from almost 260,000 in 1990 to over 640,000 by 2020. Many of the problems facing Las Vegas’s city government came as a result of the rapid population growth. The desert city has a high rate of water usage per person, and leaders worried that the metropolitan area’s share of water from the Colorado River and Lake Mead was not sufficient for continued growth. The county and city governments helped form the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which works to develop water conservation programs and find new sources of water.
The area’s population growth also led to crowded classrooms. In response, the Clark County School District placed some schools on double sessions or year-round schedules. The population growth also brought an increase in traffic congestion, air pollution, and crime.
Until the late 1900’s, gambling was illegal in most parts of the United States outside Nevada. But many state governments then began legalizing some forms of gambling to raise revenues for their operations. In response to the new competition, Las Vegas gaming companies began building larger, themed hotels to attract more visitors.
During the early decades of the 2000’s, the Symphony Park project rose just west of the city’s historic downtown district. The development features a medical research center, the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, and the Discovery Children’s Museum. A stadium that serves as the home field of the Las Vegas Raiders football team opened in nearby Paradise, Nevada, in 2020.
In October 2017, a gunman opened fire on a crowd attending a country music concert in Las Vegas. Sixty people were killed in the incident or died later of their wounds. Several hundred others were injured.
