Missouri is the 24th state of the United States of America, admitted to the Union on August 10, 1821.

Located in the geographic heart of the nation, Missouri is one of the foremost agricultural states in the country and is one of the most important manufacturing states in the MidWest.

MidWestern in its grain and cornfields, Southern in its cotton fields, Western in its cattle raising, and Eastern in its manufacturing, Missouri is today more than ever the Center State, as it is sometimes known, and a major transportation crossroads.

The name of the state is taken from the Missouri River and is an Algonquian name for a group that lived near the mouth of the river.

When it was admitted to the Union, Missouri was the nation’s Western frontier. Soon, however, it became known as the Gateway to the West, because of the great overland routes that led from Missouri to California and Oregon.

Still another nickname was added to the list in 1899, when Congressman Willard D. Vandiver said: "I come from a country that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I’m from Missouri. You’ve got to show me". After that, Missouri became known as the Show Me State.

Following are Missouri’s principal urban areas, in order of population.

• Kansas City in the West, is the state’s largest city, encompassing parts of the counties of Jackson, Clay, Platte, and Cass.
• St. Louis in the East, is the hub of the largest metropolitan region in Missouri, and one of the MidWest’s principal industrial, commercial, educational, and cultural centers.
• Springfield, the seat of Greene County, is the distribution center for the Ozarks region, which covers much of Southern Missouri and parts of Arkansas and Oklahoma.
• Independence, the seat of Jackson County, is a manufacturing, distribution, and retail center.
• Columbia, the seat of Boone County, is chiefly a research and educational center, the seat of the University of Missouri (1839), Stephens College (1833), and Columbia College (1851).
• In the NorthWest is St. Joseph, the seat of Buchanan County on the Missouri River, a trade, processing, and shipping center of a livestock-breeding and grain- and tobacco-producing area.
• The principal city in the SouthWest is Joplin, in Jasper and Newton counties near the Ozark Mountains, the transportation and commercial center of a diversified farming region.
• Jefferson City is the seat of Cole County and the state capital.

The SouthEastern Lowland has a number of small urban communities. The most thinly populated and most rural sections of Missouri are the Ozark Upland and the North central section of the Northern Plains near Iowa.

The mean population center of the United States moved into Missouri from Illinois in the 1980 census. In 1990, it was located in the Northern Ozarks, near Steelville; in 2000, the center was near Edgar Springs in Phelps County.

The mean center of population is the point at which a rigid map of the United States would balance if identical weights were placed on the map at the location of every person.