Nebraska is the 37th state of the United States of America, admitted to the Union on March 1, 1867.

Lincoln is the state capital. Omaha is the largest city.

From the eastern boundary of Nebraska, many explorers, fur traders, and adventurers started their trek across the plains and the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast.

Later, settlers moved into the area, seeking free or inexpensive farmland or better opportunities in a growing region. The first land claim under the Homestead Act of 1862 was made in Nebraska, and the eastern terminus of the first transcontinental railroad was Omaha.

Midway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, Nebraska is a land of transition. Climate, soils, vegetation, and landforms change considerably across the state.

The large urban centers of the eastern part of the state give way to small rural communities farther west, where there are large wheat fields and vast expanses of grazing land. Gently rolling hills and forested valleys in the east contrast sharply with the treeless plains and intermittent streams farther west.

The Platte River and its tributaries drain most of the state, and the Platte’s broad valley serves as a transportation corridor linking cities with farms and west with east. The river has also indirectly given the state its name, because Nebrathka, meaning "flat water", was the Oto name for the Platte River.

Nebraska is called the Cornhusker State in reference to its primary agricultural crop.

Only two cities have been designated metropolitan areas in Nebraska. Together these areas contain more than one-half of the state’s population.

• The largest city, Omaha, is Nebraska’s principal manufacturing center, and it also dominates the state’s retail and wholesale trade. The Omaha metropolitan area includes people living around Council Bluffs in Iowa.
• Second in size is Lincoln, which is the state capital and contains the University of Nebraska’s major campus and two other major colleges. Many insurance companies have home offices in the city, and for this reason, Lincoln has sometimes been called the Hartford of the Midwest.
• Grand Island is a railroad and distribution center for the surrounding agricultural area.

Nebraska’s other principal cities are

• Bellevue, ;
• Kearney, ;
• Fremont, ;
• North Platte, ; and
• Hastings, .