Nevada Facts -- National Geographic

Fast Facts

Population:: 2,241,154
Capital:: Carson City; 54,311
Area:: 110,561 square miles (286,351 square kilometers)
Per Capita Income:: U.S. $30,169
Date Statehood Achieved:: October 31, 1864

No rivers flow to the sea from the Great Basin, whose high ridges and alkali sinks dominate this driest state. In 1859 prospectors struck the Comstock Lode in western Nevada. Today gold and silver mines are reopening, but casino gambling, legalized in 1931, added more than nine billion dollars of revenue to the economy in 2002—more than agriculture, manufacturing, and mining combined. Nevada is 87 percent federally owned. It is the fastest growing state—its population has more than doubled since 1980.

ECONOMY

Industry: Tourism and gaming, mining, printing and publishing, food processing, electrical equipment
Agriculture: Cattle, hay, dairy products

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

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