Arizona Facts -- National Geographic

Fast Facts

Population:: 5,580,811
Capital:: Phoenix; 1,371,960
Area:: 113,998 square miles (295,254 square kilometers)
Per Capita Income:: U.S. $26,157
Date Statehood Achieved:: February 14, 1912

Ghostly cliff dwellings, such as Canyon de Chelly, contrast sharply with Phoenix and Tucson, where one out of three Arizonans live. The state's population has doubled in the past 20 years, and today smog often shrouds Phoenix, once favored by asthmatics for its clean, dry air. Service industries and high-tech and aerospace manufacturing have eclipsed the "three C's"—copper, cattle, and cotton; irrigated agribusiness remains important. The multibillion-dollar Central Arizona Project river diversion helps slake Arizona's thirst.

ECONOMY

Industry: Real estate, manufactured goods, retail, state and local government, transportation and public utilities, wholesale trade, health services
Agriculture: Vegetables, cattle, dairy products, cotton, fruit, nursery stock, nuts

—Text From National Geographic Atlas of the World, Eighth Edition

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