Arizona is the 48th state of the United States of America, admitted to the Union on February 14, 1912.

Arizona was the youngest of the adjoining continental states to enter the Union, until the admission of Alaska and Hawaii in 1959.

Arizona’s landscape is one of great diversity, a land of seemingly limitless space and tremendous vistas. Sun-swept mountains and valleys, lofty plateaus, narrow canyons, and awesome stretches of desert make it one of the most beautiful states in the nation.

This scenic beauty, coupled with an ideal climate, has made Arizona very popular with tourists.

Imperial Spain and later, independent Mexico, once controlled this land, and there the Native American, Spanish, and Anglo-American cultures met and fused.

Although Spain and Mexico had long relinquished control of the area, and most of the Native Americans now live on reservations, traces of Arizona’s past still remain. The Native American culture has been preserved on the reservations, and Spanish and Mexican influences may be seen in architectural styles and place names.

Arizona has undergone great changes since the 19th century, when it was a rough-and-tumble mining and cattle territory. Although it still retains much of the character of the old West for tourists, it is a modern urban and industrial state, with large cities, highly mechanized farms, and rapidly expanding industries.

The name of the state is derived from the Native American word arizonac believed to mean "place of the small spring".

Arizona is popularly known as the Grand Canyon State, after its most remarkable physical feature, the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River.

Following are Arizona’s principal urban areas, in order of population (US Census 2006 estimates).

• Phoenix is the seat of Maricopa County and the state capital. Aside from being Arizona’s administrative center, Phoenix is the hub of an extensive metropolitan area covering Maricopa and Pinal counties.
• Tucson, the seat of Pima county, is a commercial and educational center and a noted health and tourist resort. The Tucson metropolitan area is coextensive with Pima County.

Other major cities within the Phoenix metropolitan area include

• Mesa, a commercial, manufacturing, agricultural, and tourist center;
• Glendale, with a diversified economy that includes aerospace, communications, precision metalworking, chemical and electronic manufacturing, and warehousing industries;
• Chandler, which has an economy based on high-technology manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism;
• Scottsdale, on the Arizona Canal, a popular winter resort and an arts and crafts center;
• Tempe, on the Salt River, a residential and industrial city, and the seat of Arizona State University (1885);
• Peoria, in Maricopa and Yavapaia Counties, a simple farming community that has grown to a dynamic desert city;

Other cities of interest include

• Yuma, the seat of Yuma County in extreme SouthWestern Arizona, on the Colorado River;
• Surprise, one of the fastest-growing community in the Greater Phoenix area;
• Flagstaff, the seat of Coconino County in Northern Arizona, a tourist resort situated at an elevation of about 2125 m (about 6970 ft) at the base of the San Francisco Peaks; and
• Lake Havasu City, in Mohave County, on the East shore of Lake Havasu on the Colorado River bordering California, a popular tourist attraction.