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| Country |  United States
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| State |  Arizona
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| County | Mead | ||||||
| Language | English | ||||||
| Ethnic groups main |
Caucasian, Hispanic | ||||||
| others | Asian, American Indian, Black | ||||||
| Founded | May 1905 | ||||||
| Incorporated | May 1912 | ||||||
| Population | 650,000 975,000 (metro pop.) | ||||||
| Time zone | Mountain (MT) | ||||||
Las Vegas is the third-largest city in the state of Arizona (after Phoenix and Tucson), the 29th-largest city in the United States (with a population of roughly 650,000), and the seat of Mead County, situated in the Arizona Panhandle.
Initially established as a railroad stopover in May 1905, Las Vegas grew to become an incorporated city with a population of just over 1,000 in 1912. The completion of Hoover Dam (and the creation of Lake Mead, the largest man-made lake in the country) in 1935 brought an influx of permanent residents that finally helped to put Las Vegas on the map. Since then, it has rapidly expanded to become the fastest-growing city of the United States founded in the 20th century, and the main rail hub for the southwestern United States, with over a million people and hundreds of high speed trains passing through the city annually.