St. Louis, or Saint Louis, is a city in eastern Missouri, in the United States of America, situated near the convergence of two great inland water routes, the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers.

The hub of the largest metropolitan region in Missouri that includes nearby Illinois communities, St. Louis is one of the Midwest’s principal industrial, commercial, educational, and cultural centers.

It is a city of predominately brick buildings, softened by abundant trees that line streets and shelter homes.

St. Louis was established in 1764 by French fur traders and named in honor of Louis IX, a 13th-century king of France canonized as a saint.

In 1876, the state legislature set the limits of the city proper and granted St. Louis a special status as an independent city. separated from the surrounding St. Louis County. St. Louis has not annexed any land since then.

This was done at a time when the city was wealthy and surrounding rural lands poor, but fortunes have since reversed and St. Louis now covets the tax base of its prosperous suburbs. Attempts to rejoin the county have been rebuffed.

The St. Louis metropolitan area consists of the city proper, six Missouri counties (St. Louis, St. Charles, Jefferson, Franklin, Lincoln, and Warren), and five Illinois counties (St. Clair, Madison, Clinton, Monroe, and Jersey).

It covers a land area of 15,865 sq km (6,125 sq mi).

The almost entirely urbanized St. Louis County lies to the north, west, and south of the city and contains two-fifths of the area’s entire population.

Further out is a belt of economically varied incorporated cities, some quite small.

• Clayton is the seat of St. Louis County and the largest commercial and office center outside the city core.
• Ladue and Chesterfield are upscale communities where many of the region’s wealthiest families live.
• Creve Coeur and Westport, commercial and industrial towns, are where many of the county residents work in office and industrial parks.
• St. Charles County, Missouri’s fastest-growing county during the 1980s, is filling up rapidly as new subdivisions spread along Interstate 70.

The metropolitan counties to the east of the Mississippi River in Illinois are home to both industry and fertile farmlands. The only heavily urbanized sections lie close to the river in St. Clair County, site of East Saint Louis, and Madison County.

The economy of East Saint Louis has been depressed since the 1960s, and the city is plagued by crime, deteriorated housing, and declining property values. Several small cities have split off from East Saint Louis, taking large factories and much of the tax base with them.