Las Vegas
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Las Vegas (;
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the
state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...
of
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
, and the
county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...
of Clark County. The city anchors the
Las Vegas Valley The Las Vegas Valley is a major metropolitan area in the Southern Nevada, southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada, and the second largest in the Southwestern United States. The state's largest urban agglomeration, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Stat ...
metropolitan area and is the largest city within the greater
Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...
. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major
resort city A resort town, often called a resort city or resort destination, is an urban area where tourism or vacationing is the primary component of the local culture and economy. A typical resort town has one or more actual resorts in the surrounding ...
, known primarily for its
gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...
, shopping, fine dining, entertainment, and
nightlife Nightlife is a collective term for entertainment that is available and generally more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. It includes pubs, bars, nightclubs, parties, live music, concerts, cabarets, theatre, ...
. The Las Vegas Valley as a whole serves as the leading financial, commercial, and cultural center for Nevada. The city bills itself as
The Entertainment Capital of the World The Entertainment Capital of the World is a nickname that has been applied to several cities, including: * Las Vegas, because of its "broad scope of entertainment options including nightlife, shows, exhibits, museums, theme parks, pool parties, an ...
, and is famous for its luxurious and extremely large casino-hotels together with their associated activities. It is a top three destination in the United States for business conventions and a global leader in the
hospitality industry The hospitality industry is a broad category of fields within the service industry that includes lodging, food and drink service, event planning, theme parks, travel and tourism. It includes hotels, tourism agencies, restaurants and bars. Sect ...
, claiming more AAA Five Diamond hotels than any other city in the world. Today, Las Vegas annually ranks as one of the world's most visited tourist destinations. The city's tolerance for numerous forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of "
Sin City ''Sin City'' is a series of neo-noir comics by American comic book writer-artist Frank Miller. The first story originally appeared in ''Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special'' (April 1991), and continued in ''Dark Horse Presents'' #51â ...
", and has made Las Vegas a popular setting for literature, films, television programs, and music videos. Las Vegas was settled in 1905 and officially incorporated in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, it was the most populated North American city founded within that century (a similar distinction was earned by
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
in the 19th century). Population growth has accelerated since the 1960s, and between 1990 and 2000 the population nearly doubled, increasing by 85.2%. Rapid growth has continued into the 21st century, and according to the
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...
, the city had 641,903 residents in 2020, with a metropolitan population of 2,227,053. As with most major metropolitan areas, the name of the primary city ("Las Vegas" in this case) is often used to describe areas beyond official city limits. In the case of Las Vegas, this especially applies to the areas on and near the
Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas city ...
, which are actually located within the unincorporated communities of
Paradise In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in parad ...
and
Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...
. Nevada is the driest state, and Las Vegas is the driest major U.S. city. Over time and influenced by
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
,
drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D.  Jiang, A.  Khan, W.  Pokam Mba, D.  Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...
s in Southern Nevada have been increasing in frequency and severity, putting a further strain on Las Vegas'
water security Water security is the focused goal of water policy and water management. A society with a high level of water security makes the most of water's benefits for humans and ecosystems and limits the risk of destructive impacts associated with water. T ...
.


Toponymy

The area was named Las Vegas, which is Spanish for "the meadows", as it featured abundant wild grasses, as well as the desert spring waters needed by westward travelers.


History

Nomadic Paleo-Indians traveled to the Las Vegas area 10,000 years ago, leaving behind petroglyphs. Ancient Puebloan and
Paiute Paiute (; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three groups do not form a single set. The term "Paiu ...
tribes followed at least 2,000 years ago. A young Mexican scout named Rafael Rivera is credited as the first non- Native American to encounter the valley, in 1829. Trader
Antonio Armijo Antonio Mariano Armijo (1804–1850) was a Spanish explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of ...
led a 60-man party along the Spanish Trail to
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, California in 1829. In 1844,
John C. Frémont John Charles Frémont or Fremont (January 21, 1813July 13, 1890) was an American explorer, military officer, and politician. He was a U.S. Senator from California and was the first Republican nominee for president of the United States in 1856 ...
arrived, and his writings helped lure pioneers to the area. Downtown Las Vegas's Fremont Street is named after him. Eleven years later, members of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...
chose Las Vegas as the site to build a fort halfway between
Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
and Los Angeles, where they would travel to gather supplies. The fort was abandoned several years afterward. The remainder of this Old Mormon Fort can still be seen at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington Avenue. Las Vegas was founded as a city in 1905, when of land adjacent to the
Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...
tracks were auctioned in what would become the downtown area. In 1911, Las Vegas was incorporated as a city. 1931 was a pivotal year for Las Vegas. At that time, Nevada legalized casino gambling and reduced residency requirements for divorce to six weeks. This year also witnessed the beginning of construction on nearby Hoover Dam. The influx of construction workers and their families helped Las Vegas avoid economic calamity during the Great Depression. The construction work was completed in 1935. In late 1941,
Las Vegas Army Airfield Nellis Air Force Base ("Nellis" colloq.) is a United States Air Force installation in southern Nevada. Nellis hosts air combat exercises such as Exercise Red Flag and close air support exercises such as Green Flag-West flown in " Military Op ...
was established. Renamed
Nellis Air Force Base Nellis Air Force Base ("Nellis" colloq.) is a United States Air Force installation in southern Nevada. Nellis hosts air combat exercises such as Exercise Red Flag and close air support exercises such as Green Flag-West flown in " Military ...
in 1950, it is now home to the
United States Air Force Thunderbirds The USAF Air Demonstration Squadron ("Thunderbirds") is the air demonstration squadron of the United States Air Force The Thunderbirds are assigned to the 57th Wing, and are based at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. Created in 1953, the USAF T ...
aerobatic team. Following World War II, lavishly decorated hotels, gambling casinos, and big-name entertainment became synonymous with Las Vegas. In 1951,
nuclear weapons testing Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by ...
began at the
Nevada Test Site The Nevada National Security Site (N2S2 or NNSS), known as the Nevada Test Site (NTS) until 2010, is a United States Department of Energy (DOE) reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about 65 miles (105 km) northwest of the ...
, northwest of Las Vegas. During this time, the city was nicknamed the "Atomic City". Residents and visitors were able to witness the mushroom clouds (and were exposed to the fallout) until 1963 when the
Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty The Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) is the abbreviated name of the 1963 Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water, which prohibited all test detonations of nuclear weapons except for those conducted ...
required that nuclear tests be moved underground. In 1955, the
Moulin Rouge Hotel The Moulin Rouge Hotel was a hotel and casino located in West Las Vegas that was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1992. Although its peak operation lasted only six months in the second half of 1955, it was the first dese ...
opened and became the first racially integrated casino-hotel in Las Vegas. The iconic " Welcome to Las Vegas" sign, which has never been located within municipal limits, was created in 1959 by Betty Willis. During the 1960s, corporations and business tycoons such as Howard Hughes were building and buying hotel-casino properties. Gambling was referred to as "gaming", which transitioned it into a legitimate business. ''
Learning from Las Vegas ''Learning from Las Vegas'' is a 1972 book by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour. Translated into 18 languages, the book helped foster the development of postmodern architecture. Compilation In March 1968, Robert Venturi and ...
'', published during this era, asked architects to take inspiration from the city's highly decorated buildings, helping to start the postmodern architecture movement. In 1995, the
Fremont Street Experience The Fremont Street Experience (FSE) is a pedestrian mall and attraction in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. The FSE occupies the westernmost five blocks of Fremont Street, including the area known for years as "Glitter Gulch", and portions of some ...
opened in Las Vegas's downtown area. This canopied five-block area features 12.5 million LED lights and 550,000 watts of sound from dusk until midnight during shows held at the top of each hour. Due to the realization of many revitalization efforts, 2012 was dubbed "The Year of Downtown". Projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars made their debut at this time, including the
Smith Center for the Performing Arts The Smith Center for the Performing Arts is located in Downtown Las Vegas's 61-acre Symphony Park and is a five-acre performing arts center consisting of three theaters in two buildings; groundbreaking for the $470 million project was May 26, 20 ...
, the
DISCOVERY Children's Museum DISCOVERY Children's Museum is a nonprofit Children's museum, children’s museum in Las Vegas, Nevada, dedicated to providing children of all abilities, backgrounds, and beliefs, access to fun and exciting STEAM (science, technology, engineering, ...
, the
Mob Museum The Mob Museum, officially the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, is a history museum located in Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Opened on February 14, 2012, the Mob Museum is dedicated to featuring the artifacts ...
, the
Neon Museum The Neon Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, features signs from old casinos and other businesses displayed outdoors on 2.62 acres. The museum features a restored lobby shell from the defunct La Concha Motel as its visitors' center, whic ...
, a new City Hall complex, and renovations for a new Zappos.com corporate headquarters in the old City Hall building.


Geography

Las Vegas is situated within Clark County, in a basin on the floor of the
Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...
, and is surrounded by mountain ranges on all sides. Much of the landscape is rocky and arid, with desert vegetation and wildlife. It can be subjected to torrential flash floods, although much has been done to mitigate the effects of flash floods through improved drainage systems. The peaks surrounding Las Vegas reach elevations of over , and act as barriers to the strong flow of moisture from the surrounding area. The elevation is approximately above sea level. According to the
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...
, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (0.03%) is water. After Alaska and California, Nevada is the third most seismically active state in the U.S. It has been estimated by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) that over the next 50 years, there is a 10–20% chance of an M6.0 or greater earthquake occurring within of Las Vegas. Within the city, there are many lawns, trees and other greenery. Due to water resource issues, there has been a movement to encourage xeriscapes. Another part of conservation efforts is scheduled watering days for residential landscaping. A
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon pro ...
grant in 2008 funded a program that analyzed and forecast growth and environmental impacts through 2019.


Climate

Las Vegas has a
subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...
hot desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...
(
Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
: ''BWh''), typical of the
Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...
in which it lies. This climate is typified by long, extremely hot summers; warm transitional seasons; and short winters with mild days and cool nights. There is abundant sunshine throughout the year, with an average of 310 sunny days and bright sunshine during 86% of all daylight hours. Rainfall is scarce, with an average of dispersed between roughly 26 total rainy days per year. Las Vegas is among the sunniest, driest, and least humid locations in North America, with exceptionally low dew points and humidity that sometimes remains below 10%. The summer months of June through September are extremely hot, though moderated by extremely low humidity. July is the hottest month, with an average daytime high of . On average, 137 days per year reach or exceed , of which 78 days reach and 10 days reach . During the peak intensity of summer, overnight lows frequently remain above , and occasionally above . While most summer days are consistently hot, dry, and cloudless, the
North American Monsoon The North American monsoon, variously known as the Southwest monsoon, the Mexican monsoon, the New Mexican monsoon, or the Arizona monsoon is a pattern of pronounced increase in thunderstorms and rainfall over large areas of the southwestern Uni ...
sporadically interrupts this pattern and brings more cloud cover, thunderstorms, lightning, increased humidity, and brief spells of heavy rain. Potential monsoons affect Las Vegas between July and August. Summer in Las Vegas is marked by a significant
diurnal temperature variation In meteorology, diurnal temperature variation is the variation between a high air temperature and a low temperature that occurs during the same day. Temperature lag Temperature lag is an important factor in diurnal temperature variation: peak da ...
. While less extreme than other parts of the state, nighttime lows in Las Vegas are often or more lower than daytime highs. The average hottest night of the year is . The all-time record is at . Las Vegas winters are short and generally very mild, with chilly (but rarely cold) daytime temperatures. Sunshine is abundant in all seasons. December is both the year's coolest and cloudiest month, with an average daytime high of and sunshine occurring during 78% of its daylight hours. Winter evenings are defined by clear skies and swift drops in temperature after sunset, with overnight minima averaging around in December and January. Owing to its elevation that ranges from , Las Vegas experiences markedly cooler winters than other areas of the
Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...
and the adjacent
Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert ( es, Desierto de Sonora) is a desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States (in Ariz ...
that are closer to sea level. The city records freezing temperatures an average of 10 nights per winter. It is exceptionally rare for temperatures to reach or fall below . Most of the annual precipitation falls during the winter months. February, the wettest month, averages only four days of measurable rain. The mountains immediately surrounding the Las Vegas Valley accumulate snow every winter, but significant accumulation within the city is rare, although moderate accumulations occur every few years. The most recent accumulations occurred on February 18, 2019, when parts of the city received about of snow and on February 20 when the city received almost . Other recent significant snow accumulations occurred on December 25, 2015, and December 17, 2008. Unofficially, Las Vegas's largest snowfall on record was the that fell in 1909. In recent times, ice days have not occurred, although was measured in 1963. On average the coldest day is . is the highest temperature officially observed for Las Vegas, as measured at
Harry Reid International Airport Harry Reid International Airport is an international airport in Paradise, Nevada, and is the main government airport for public use in the Las Vegas Valley, a metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Nevada, about south of Downtown Las Vegas. ...
on July 10, 2021, the last of five occasions. The lowest temperature was , recorded on two days: January 25, 1937, and January 13, 1963. The highest temperature ever measured within the city of Las Vegas was on July 26, 1931. The official record hot daily minimum is on July 19, 2005, and July 1, 2013. The official record cold daily maximum is on January 8 and 21, 1937. Due to concerns about
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
in the wake of a 2002 drought, daily water consumption has been reduced from per resident in 2003 to around in 2015.


Nearby communities

*
Boulder City Boulder City is a city in Clark County, Nevada, United States. It is approximately southeast of Las Vegas. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population of Boulder City was 14,885. The city took its name from Boulder Canyon ( ...
, incorporated *
Enterprise Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to: Business and economics Brands and enterprises * Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company * Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company * Enterpris ...
, unincorporated *
Henderson Henderson may refer to: People *Henderson (surname), description of the surname, and a list of people with the surname *Clan Henderson, a Scottish clan Places Argentina *Henderson, Buenos Aires Australia *Henderson, Western Australia Canada * H ...
, incorporated * Lone Mountain, unincorporated * North Las Vegas, incorporated *
Paradise In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in parad ...
, unincorporated * Spring Valley, unincorporated *
Summerlin South Summerlin South, also seen on maps as South Summerlin, is a census-designated place (CDP) in Clark County, Nevada, United States, on the western edge of the Las Vegas Valley and adjacent to the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. It is so ...
, unincorporated * Sunrise Manor, unincorporated *
Whitney Whitney may refer to: Film and television * ''Whitney'' (2015 film), a Whitney Houston biopic starring Yaya DaCosta * ''Whitney'' (2018 film), a documentary about Whitney Houston * ''Whitney'' (TV series), an American sitcom that premiered i ...
, unincorporated *
Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...
, unincorporated


Neighborhoods

* Downtown * The Lakes *
Summerlin Summerlin is a master-planned community in the Las Vegas Valley of Southern Nevada. It lies at the edge of the Spring Mountains and Red Rock Canyon to the west; it is partly within the official city limits of Las Vegas and partly within uni ...
*
West Las Vegas West Las Vegas is a historic neighborhood in Las Vegas, Nevada. This area is located northwest of the Las Vegas Strip and the "Spaghetti Bowl" interchange of I-15 and US 95. It is also known as Historic West Las Vegas and more simply, the Wests ...


Demographics

According to the 2010 Census, the racial composition of Las Vegas was as follows: *
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...
: 62.1% (
Non-Hispanic Whites Non-Hispanic whites or Non-Latino whites are Americans who are classified as "white", and are not of Hispanic (also known as "Latino") heritage. The United States Census Bureau defines ''white'' to include European Americans, Middle Eastern Ame ...
: 47.9%; Hispanic Whites: 14.2%) * Black or African American: 11.1% *
Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...
: 6.1% (3.3% Filipino, 0.7% Chinese, 0.5% Korean, 0.4% Japanese, 0.4% Indian, 0.2% Vietnamese, 0.2% Thai) *
Two or more races 2 (two) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3. It is the smallest and only even prime number. Because it forms the basis of a duality, it has religious and spiritual significance in many cultur ...
: 4.9% * Native American: 0.7% * Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander: 0.6% Source: The city's most populous ethnic group, non-Hispanic Whites, have proportionally declined from 72.1% of the population in 1990 to 47.9% in 2010, even as total numbers of all ethnicities have increased with the population. Hispanics or Latinos of any race make up 31.5% of the population. Of those 24.0% are of Mexican, 1.4% of Salvadoran, 0.9% of Puerto Rican, 0.9% of Cuban, 0.6% of Guatemalan, 0.2% of Peruvian, 0.2% of Colombian, 0.2% of Honduran and 0.2% of Nicaraguan descent. According to research by demographer William H. Frey, using data from the
2010 United States Census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators servin ...
, Las Vegas has the second lowest level of black-white segregation of any of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States, after
Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...
. Hawaiians and Las Vegans alike sometimes refer to Las Vegas as the "ninth island of
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
" because so many Hawaiians have moved to the city. There is a Ethiopian community in Las Vegas. The 2010 census showed the city contained 583,756 people, 211,689 households, and 117,538 families residing. The population density was . There were 190,724 housing units at an average density of . As of 2006, there were 176,750 households, of which 31.9% had children under age 18 living with them, 48.3% were married couples living together, 12.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.5% were non-families. 25.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.66 and the average family size was 3.20. In the city, the population age distribution was as follows: * 25.9% under the age of 18 * 8.8% from 18 to 24 * 32.0% from 25 to 44 * 21.7% from 45 to 64 * 11.6% who were 65 years of age or older The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 103.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.5 males. The median income for a household in the city was $53,000 and the median income for a family was $58,465. Males had a median income of $35,511 versus $27,554 for females. The per capita income for the city was $22,060. About 6.6% of families and 8.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.4% of those under age 18 and 6.3% of those age 65 or over. According to a 2004 study, Las Vegas has one of the highest divorce rates. The city's high divorce rate is not wholly due to Las Vegans themselves getting divorced. Since divorce is easier in Nevada than in most other states, many people come from across the country for the easier process. Similarly, Nevada marriages are notoriously easy to get. Las Vegas has one of the highest marriage rates of U.S. cities, with many licenses issued to people from outside the area (see
Las Vegas weddings Las Vegas weddings refers to wedding ceremonies held in Las Vegas, Nevada, which came to be known as the "Marriage Capital of the World" because of the ease of acquiring a marriage license and the minimal costs involved. The city continues to be kn ...
).


Economy

The primary drivers of the Las Vegas economy are tourism,
gaming Gaming may refer to: Games and sports The act of playing games, as in: * Legalized gambling, playing games of chance for money, often referred to in law as "gaming" * Playing a role-playing game, in which players assume fictional roles * Playin ...
, and conventions, which in turn feed the retail and restaurant industries.


Tourism

The major attractions in Las Vegas are the casinos and the hotels, although in recent years other new attractions have begun to emerge. Most casinos in the downtown area are located on
Fremont Street Fremont Street is a street in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada that is the second most famous street in the Las Vegas Valley – and Nevada – besides the Las Vegas Strip. Named in honor of explorer and politician John C. FrĂ©mont and located in the h ...
, with The STRAT Hotel, Casino & Skypod as one of the few exceptions.
Fremont East Fremont Street is a street in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada that is the second most famous street in the Las Vegas Valley – and Nevada – besides the Las Vegas Strip. Named in honor of explorer and politician John C. FrĂ©mont and located in the h ...
, adjacent to the Fremont Street Experience, was granted variances to allow bars to be closer together, similar to the
Gaslamp Quarter The Gaslamp Quarter is a 16œ-block neighborhood in the downtown area of San Diego, California. It extends from Broadway to Harbor Drive, and from 4th to 6th Avenue. Listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places as ...
of San Diego, the goal being to attract a different demographic than the Strip attracts.


Downtown casinos

The
Golden Gate Hotel and Casino The Golden Gate Hotel & Casino is located at One Fremont Street in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. A part of the Fremont Street Experience, it is the oldest and smallest hotel (122 rooms) on the Fremont Street Experience. John F. Miller initial ...
, located downtown along the Fremont Street Experience, is the oldest continuously operating hotel and casino in Las Vegas; it opened in 1906 as the Hotel Nevada. In 1931, the Northern Club (now the La Bayou) opened. The most notable of the early casinos may have been
Binion's Horseshoe Binion's Gambling Hall & Hotel, formerly Binion's Horseshoe, is a casino on Fremont Street along the Fremont Street Experience mall in Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned by TLC Casino Enterprises. The casino is named for its founder, Ben ...
(now
Binion's Gambling Hall and Hotel Binion's Gambling Hall & Hotel, formerly Binion's Horseshoe, is a casino on Fremont Street along the Fremont Street Experience mall in Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned by TLC Casino Enterprises. The casino is named for its founder, Ben ...
) while it was run by Benny Binion.
Boyd Gaming Boyd Gaming Corporation is an American gaming and hospitality company based in Paradise, Nevada. The company continues to be run by founder Sam Boyd's family under the management of Sam's son, Bill Boyd (born 1931), who currently serves as the ...
has a major presence downtown operating the California Hotel & Casino, the Fremont Hotel & Casino, and the
Main Street Casino The Main Street Station Hotel and Casino and Brewery is a hotel and casino located in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned by Boyd Gaming. The casino is connected to California Hotel and Casino by an enclosed skywalk over Main Street. Mai ...
. The
Four Queens The Four Queens Hotel and Casino is located in downtown Las Vegas on the Fremont Street Experience. The 690-room hotel and casino is owned and operated by TLC Casino Enterprises, which acquired the property from the Elsinore Corporation in 200 ...
also operates downtown along the Fremont Street Experience. Downtown casinos that have undergone major renovations and revitalization in recent years include the
Golden Nugget Las Vegas The Golden Nugget Las Vegas is a luxury hotel and casino located in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada on the Fremont Street Experience. The property is owned and operated by Landry's, Inc. It has 2,419 hotel rooms. History The Golden Nugget was origi ...
,
The D Las Vegas The D Las Vegas Casino Hotel (formerly Fitzgeralds) is a 34-story, 639-room hotel and casino in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, owned and operated by Derek and Greg Stevens. The D is located at the eastern end of the Fremont Street Experience. It ...
(formerly Fitzgerald's), the Downtown Grand Las Vegas (formerly Lady Luck), the El Cortez Hotel & Casino, and the
Plaza Hotel & Casino The Plaza Hotel & Casino is a casino–hotel located in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada owned by the Tamares Group, and PlayLV is the leaseholder and operator of the property. It currently has 995 rooms and suites, as well as an casino and more tha ...
.


Las Vegas Strip

The center of the gambling and entertainment industry is located on the
Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas city ...
, outside the city limits in the surrounding unincorporated communities of
Paradise In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in parad ...
and
Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...
in Clark County. Some of the largest casinos and buildings are located there.


Development

When
The Mirage The Mirage is a casino resort on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States. It is owned by Vici Properties and operated by Hard Rock International. The 65-acre property includes a casino and 3,044 rooms. Golden Nugget, Inc., le ...
opened in 1989, it started a trend of major resort development on the Las Vegas Strip outside of the city. This resulted in a drop in tourism in the downtown area, but many recent projects have increased the number of visitors to downtown. An effort has been made by city officials to diversify the economy by attracting health-related, high-tech and other commercial interests. No state tax for individuals or corporations, as well as a lack of other forms of business-related taxes, have aided the success of these efforts. The Fremont Street Experience was built in an effort to draw tourists back to the area and has been popular since its startup in 1995. The city purchased of property from the
Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...
in 1995 with the goal of creating a better draw for more people to the downtown area. In 2004, Las Vegas Mayor
Oscar Goodman Oscar Baylin Goodman (born July 26, 1939) is an American attorney and politician. A Democrat-turned-independent, Goodman was the mayor of Las Vegas, Nevada from 1999 to 2011. His wife, Carolyn Goodman, succeeded him as mayor in 2011. Early li ...
announced plans for
Symphony Park Symphony Park is a 61-acre site located in downtown Las Vegas. Once housing a Union Pacific rail yard, Symphony Park is being master developed for mixed-use by the city of Las Vegas, which is also the landowner. Symphony Park is home to the Clev ...
, which could include a mixture of offerings, such as residential space and office buildings. Already operating in Symphony Park is the Cleveland Clinic
Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health The Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health (LRCBH), officially the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, opened on May 21, 2010, in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is operated by the Cleveland Clinic and was designed by Frank Gehry. History Keep Me ...
(opened in 2010),
The Smith Center for the Performing Arts The Smith Center for the Performing Arts is located in Downtown Las Vegas's 61-acre Symphony Park and is a five-acre performing arts center consisting of three theaters in two buildings; groundbreaking for the $470 million project was May 26, 200 ...
(opened in 2012) and the DISCOVERY Children's Museum (opened in 2013). On land across from Symphony Park, the World Market Center Las Vegas opened in 2005. It currently encompasses three large buildings with a total of 5.1 million square feet. Trade shows for the furniture and furnishing industries are held there semiannually. Also located nearby is the Las Vegas North Premium Outlets. With a second expansion, completed in May 2015, the mall currently offers 175 stores. City offices moved to a new
Las Vegas City Hall Las Vegas City Hall is the center of municipal government for the City of Las Vegas, Nevada. It is located downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultura ...
in February 2013 on downtown's Main Street. The former City Hall building is now occupied by the corporate headquarters for the major online retailer, Zappos.com, which opened downtown in 2013. Zappos CEO
Tony Hsieh Anthony Hsieh ( ; December 12, 1973November 27, 2020) was an American internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He retired as the CEO of the online shoe and clothing company Zappos in August 2020 after 21 years. Prior to joining Zappos, ...
took an interest in the urban area and contributed $350 million toward a revitalization effort called the Downtown Project. Projects funded include Las Vegas's first independent bookstore,
The Writer's Block The Writer's Block is an independent bookseller, publisher, and literacy educator in downtown Las Vegas. The Writer's Block was established in 2014 by 826NYC co-founder Scott Seeley and Drew Cohen. It was opened with former BSSco. store manage ...
.


Other industries

A number of new industries have moved to Las Vegas in recent decades. Online shoe retailer Zappos.com (now an
Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...
subsidiary) was founded in San Francisco but by 2013 had moved its headquarters to downtown Las Vegas.
Allegiant Air Allegiant Air (usually shortened to Allegiant) is an ultra low-cost U.S. carrier that operates scheduled and charter flights. It is a major air carrier, the fourteenth-largest commercial airline in North America. Allegiant was founded in 1 ...
, a low-cost air carrier, launched in 1997 with its first hub at
Harry Reid International Airport Harry Reid International Airport is an international airport in Paradise, Nevada, and is the main government airport for public use in the Las Vegas Valley, a metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Nevada, about south of Downtown Las Vegas. ...
and headquarters in nearby Summerlin. Planet 13 Holdings, a cannabis company, have opened the world's largest
cannabis dispensary A cannabis shop, cannabis dispensary, or cannabis cooperative, is a location at which cannabis is sold for recreational or medical use. In the Netherlands these are called coffeeshops. In the United States they exist as an outlet for both recr ...
in Las Vegas at .


Impact of growth on water supply

A growing population means the Las Vegas Valley used more water in 2014 than in 2011. Although water conservation efforts implemented in the wake of a 2002 drought have had some success, local
water consumption A water footprint shows the extent of water use in relation to consumption by people. The water footprint of an individual, community, or business is defined as the total volume of fresh water used to produce the goods and services consumed by th ...
remains 30 percent more than in Los Angeles, and over three times that of San Francisco metropolitan area residents. The
Southern Nevada Water Authority The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) is a government agency that was founded in 1991 to manage Southern Nevada's water needs on a regional basis in Clark County. SNWA provides wholesale water treatment and delivery for the greater Las Vegas ...
is building a $1.4 billion tunnel and pumping station to bring water from
Lake Mead Lake Mead is a reservoir formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in the Southwestern United States. It is located in the states of Nevada and Arizona, east of Las Vegas. It is the largest reservoir in the US in terms of water capacity. L ...
, has purchased water rights throughout Nevada, and has planned a controversial $3.2 billion
pipeline Pipeline may refer to: Electronics, computers and computing * Pipeline (computing), a chain of data-processing stages or a CPU optimization found on ** Instruction pipelining, a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a s ...
across half the state. By law, the Las Vegas Water Service District "may deny any request for a water commitment or request for a water connection if the District has an inadequate supply of water." However, limiting growth on the basis of an inadequate water supply has been unpopular with the casino and building industries.


Culture

The city is home to several museums, including the
Neon Museum The Neon Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, features signs from old casinos and other businesses displayed outdoors on 2.62 acres. The museum features a restored lobby shell from the defunct La Concha Motel as its visitors' center, whic ...
(the location for many of the historical signs from Las Vegas's mid-20th century heyday), The
Mob Museum The Mob Museum, officially the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, is a history museum located in Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Opened on February 14, 2012, the Mob Museum is dedicated to featuring the artifacts ...
, the
Las Vegas Natural History Museum The Las Vegas Natural History Museum is a private, nonprofit natural history museum that is located in Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. The exhibits focus on various subjects, from dinosaurs, marine life, and mammals both exotic and native, as well as ...
, the DISCOVERY Children's Museum, the Nevada State Museum and the Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort State Historic Park. The city is home to an extensive Downtown Arts District, which hosts numerous galleries and events including the annual Las Vegas Film Festival. "First Friday" is a monthly celebration that includes arts, music, special presentations and food in a section of the city's downtown region called 18b, The Las Vegas Arts District. The festival extends into the Fremont East Entertainment District as well. The Thursday evening prior to First Friday is known in the arts district as "Preview Thursday", which highlights new gallery exhibitions throughout the district. The Las Vegas Academy of International Studies, Performing and Visual Arts is a
Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...
award-winning
magnet school In the U.S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities (usually school boards) as school ...
located in
downtown Las Vegas Downtown Las Vegas (commonly abbreviated as DTLV) is the central business district and historic center of Las Vegas, Nevada. It is the original townsite, and the Downtown gaming area was the primary gambling district of Las Vegas prior to the S ...
. The
Smith Center for the Performing Arts The Smith Center for the Performing Arts is located in Downtown Las Vegas's 61-acre Symphony Park and is a five-acre performing arts center consisting of three theaters in two buildings; groundbreaking for the $470 million project was May 26, 20 ...
is situated downtown in
Symphony Park Symphony Park is a 61-acre site located in downtown Las Vegas. Once housing a Union Pacific rail yard, Symphony Park is being master developed for mixed-use by the city of Las Vegas, which is also the landowner. Symphony Park is home to the Clev ...
and hosts various Broadway shows and other artistic performances. Las Vegas has earned the moniker "Gambling Capital of the World", as the city currently has the largest number of land-based casinos in the world.


Sports

The Las Vegas Valley is the home of three major professional teams: the
National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
(NHL)'s
Vegas Golden Knights The Vegas Golden Knights are a professional ice hockey team based in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference. Founded in 2017 as an expa ...
, an
expansion team An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...
that began play in the 2017–18 NHL season at
T-Mobile Arena T-Mobile Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Paradise, Nevada. Opened on April 6, 2016, it is the home arena of the Vegas Golden Knights of the National Hockey League (NHL). A joint venture between MGM Resorts International and Anschutz En ...
in nearby
Paradise In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in parad ...
, the
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
(NFL)'s
Las Vegas Raiders The Las Vegas Raiders are a professional American football team based in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The Raiders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West divis ...
, who relocated from
Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
in 2020 and play at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, and the
Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of twelve teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the Natio ...
(WNBA)'s
Las Vegas Aces The Las Vegas Aces are an American professional basketball team based in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The Aces compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The team play ...
, who play at the
Mandalay Bay Events Center The Michelob Ultra Arena, formerly the Mandalay Bay Events Center, is a 12,000-seat multi-purpose indoor arena at the Mandalay Bay, Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned and operated by M ...
. Two minor league sports teams play in the Las Vegas area. The
Las Vegas Aviators The Las Vegas Aviators, formerly known as the Las Vegas 51s and Las Vegas Stars, are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics. They are located in Summerlin South, Nevada ...
of the Pacific Coast League, the Triple-A farm club of the
Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The te ...
, play at
Las Vegas Ballpark Las Vegas Ballpark is a baseball stadium in Summerlin South, Nevada, Summerlin South, Nevada in the Las Vegas Valley. It is the home field for the Las Vegas Aviators of the Pacific Coast League. The stadium is owned by the Howard Hughes Corporati ...
in nearby Summerlin. The
Las Vegas Lights FC Las Vegas Lights FC is an American professional soccer team based in Las Vegas, Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho ...
of the
United Soccer League United Soccer League (USL), formerly known as United Soccer Leagues, is a Association football, soccer league in the United States and Canada. It organizes several men's and women's leagues, both professional and amateur. Men's leagues curren ...
, play in
Cashman Field Cashman Field is a soccer-specific stadium in Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. It is primarily used for soccer as the home field of Las Vegas Lights FC of the USL Championship. Originally built as a baseball stadium, it was the home of the Triple-A ...
in Downtown Las Vegas. The mixed martial arts promotion,
Ultimate Fighting Championship The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA ...
(UFC), is headquartered in Las Vegas and also frequently holds fights in the city at T-Mobile Arena and at the UFC Apex training facility near the headquarters.


List of teams


Major professional teams


Minor professional teams


Amateur teams


College teams


Parks and recreation

Las Vegas has 68 parks. The city owns the land for, but does not operate, four golf courses: Angel Park Golf Club, Desert Pines Golf Club, Durango Hills Golf Club, and the Las Vegas Municipal Golf Course. It is also responsible for 123 playgrounds, 23 softball fields, 10 football fields, 44 soccer fields, 10 dog parks, six community centers, four senior centers, 109 skate parks, and six swimming pools.


Government

The city of Las Vegas government operates as a
council–manager government The council–manager government is a form of local government used for municipalities, counties, or other equivalent regions. It is one of the two most common forms of local government in the United States along with the mayor–council gover ...
. The Mayor sits as a Council member-at-large and presides over all of the
city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...
meetings. If the Mayor cannot preside over a City Council meeting, then the Mayor Pro-Tem is the presiding officer of the meeting until the Mayor returns to his/her seat. The City Manager is responsible for the administration and the day-to-day operations of all municipal services and city departments. The City Manager maintains intergovernmental relationships with federal, state, county and other local governments. Much of the Las Vegas metropolitan area is split into neighboring incorporated cities or unincorporated communities. Approximately 700,000 people live in unincorporated areas governed by Clark County, and another 465,000 live in incorporated cities such as North Las Vegas,
Henderson Henderson may refer to: People *Henderson (surname), description of the surname, and a list of people with the surname *Clan Henderson, a Scottish clan Places Argentina *Henderson, Buenos Aires Australia *Henderson, Western Australia Canada * H ...
and
Boulder City Boulder City is a city in Clark County, Nevada, United States. It is approximately southeast of Las Vegas. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population of Boulder City was 14,885. The city took its name from Boulder Canyon ( ...
. Las Vegas and Clark County share a police department, the
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (also known as the LVMPD or Metro) is a combined city and county law enforcement agency for the City of Las Vegas and Clark County, Nevada, United States. It is headed by the Sheriff of Clark County, ...
, which was formed after a 1973 merger of the
Las Vegas Police Department The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (also known as the LVMPD or Metro) is a combined city and county law enforcement agency for the City of Las Vegas and Clark County, Nevada, United States. It is headed by the Sheriff of Clark County, w ...
and the Clark County Sheriff's Department. North Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City and some colleges have their own police departments. A
Paiute Paiute (; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three groups do not form a single set. The term "Paiu ...
Indian reservation An Indian reservation is an area of land held and governed by a federally recognized Native American tribal nation whose government is accountable to the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs and not to the state government in which it ...
occupies about in the downtown area. Las Vegas, home to the
Lloyd D. George Federal District Courthouse Lloyd, Lloyd's, or Lloyds may refer to: People * Lloyd (name), a variation of the Welsh word ' or ', which means "grey" or "brown" ** List of people with given name Lloyd ** List of people with surname Lloyd * Lloyd (singer) (born 1986), Americ ...
and the Regional Justice Center, draws numerous companies providing bail, marriage, divorce, tax, incorporation and other legal services.


City council


Education


Primary and secondary schools

Primary and secondary public education is provided by the
Clark County School District The Clark County School District (CCSD) is a school district that serves all of Clark County, Nevada, including the cities of Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas, and Boulder City; as well as the census-designated places of Laughlin, Blue ...
, which is the fifth most populous school district in the nation. Students totaled 314,653 in grades K-12 for school year 2013–2014.


Colleges and universities

The
College of Southern Nevada The College of Southern Nevada (CSN) is a public community college in Clark County, Nevada. The college has more than 2,500 teaching and non-teaching staff and is the largest public college or university in Nevada. It is part of the Nevada Sys ...
(the third largest community college in the United States by enrollment) is the main higher education facility in the city. Other institutions include the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV and the for-profit private school
Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Le Cordon Bleu (French for " The Blue Ribbon") is an international network of hospitality and culinary schools teaching French ''haute cuisine''. Its educational focuses are hospitality management, culinary arts, and gastronomy. The institut ...
. Educational opportunities exist around the city; among them are the
University of Nevada, Las Vegas The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes th ...
and
Nevada State College Nevada State College (NSC) is a public college in Henderson, Nevada. It is part of the Nevada System of Higher Education and opened on September 3, 2002, as Nevada's first state college. Its main campus is located on a site in the southern foo ...
run by the Nevada System of Higher Education,
Desert Research Institute Desert Research Institute (DRI) is the nonprofit research campus of the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE), the organization that oversees all publicly supported higher education in the U.S. state of Nevada. At DRI, approximately 460 resea ...
, The International Academy of Design & Technology Las Vegas and
Touro University Nevada Touro University Nevada (TUN) is a private university in Henderson, Nevada. It is part of the Touro College and University System. Touro University Nevada is a branch campus of its sister campus Touro University California. History Touro Unive ...
.


Media


Newspapers

* '' Las Vegas Review-Journal'', the area's largest daily newspaper, is published every morning. It was formed in 1909 but has roots back to 1905. It is the largest newspaper in Nevada and is ranked as one of the top 25 newspapers in the United States by circulation. In 2000, the ''Review-Journal'' installed the largest newspaper printing press in the world. It cost $40 million, weighs 910 tons and consists of 16 towers. The newspaper is owned by casino magnate
Sheldon Adelson Sheldon Gary Adelson (; August 4, 1933 â€“ January 11, 2021) was an American businessman, investor, political donor and philanthropist. He was the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which owns ...
, who purchased it for $140 million in December 2015. In 2018, the ''Review-Journal'' received the Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for reporting the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, Oct 1 mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip. In 2018 and 2022, ''Editor and Publisher'' magazine named the ''Review-Journal'' as one of 10 newspapers in the United States "doing it right". * ''Las Vegas Sun'', a daily 8-page newspaper independently published but the print edition distributed as a section inside the ''Review-Journal''. The ''Sun'' is owned by the Greenspun family and is affiliated with Greenspun Media Group. It was founded independently in 1950 and in 1989 entered into a Joint Operating Agreement with the ''Review-Journal'', which runs through 2040. The ''Sun'' has been described as "politically liberal." In 2009, the ''Sun'' was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the high death rate of construction workers on the Las Vegas Strip amid lax enforcement of regulations. * ''Las Vegas Weekly'' is a free alternative weekly newspaper based in Henderson, Nevada. It covers Las Vegas arts, entertainment, culture and news. ''Las Vegas Weekly'' was founded in 1992 and is published by Greenspun Media Group.


Broadcast

Las Vegas is served by 22 television stations and 46 radio stations. The area is also served by two NOAA Weather Radio transmitters (162.55 MHz located in Boulder City and 162.40 MHz located on Potosi Mountain (Nevada), Potosi Mountain). * Template:Las Vegas Radio, Radio stations in Las Vegas * Template:Las Vegas TV, Television stations in Las Vegas


Magazines

* ''Desert Companion'' * ''Las Vegas Weekly'' * ''Luxury Las Vegas''


Transportation

RTC Transit is a public transportation system providing bus service throughout Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas and other areas of the valley. Inter-city bus service to and from Las Vegas is provided by Greyhound Lines, Greyhound, BoltBus, Orange Belt Stages, Tufesa, and several smaller carriers. Amtrak trains have not served Las Vegas since the service via the ''Desert Wind'' at Las Vegas station (Nevada), Las Vegas station ceased in 1997, but Amtrak California operates Thruway Motorcoach dedicated service between the city and its passenger rail stations in Bakersfield (Amtrak station), Bakersfield, California, as well as Los Angeles Union Station via Harvey House (Barstow, California), Barstow. The Las Vegas Monorail on the Strip was privately built, and upon bankruptcy taken over by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Silver Rider Transit operates three routes within Las Vegas, offering connections to Laughlin, Mesquite, and Sandy Valley The
Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...
is the only Class I railroad providing rail freight service to the city. Until 1997, the Amtrak ''Desert Wind'' train service ran through Las Vegas using the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. In March 2010, the RTC launched bus rapid transit link in Las Vegas called the ''Strip & Downtown Express'' with limited stops and frequent service that connects downtown Las Vegas, the Strip and the Las Vegas Convention Center. Shortly after the launch, the RTC dropped the ''ACE'' name. In 2016, 77.1 percent of working Las Vegas residents (those living in the city, but not necessarily working in the city) commuted by driving alone. About 11 percent commuted via carpool, 3.9 percent used public transportation, and 1.4 percent walked. About 2.3 percent of Las Vegas commuters used all other forms of transportation, including taxi, bicycle, and motorcycle. About 4.3% of working Las Vegas residents worked at home. In 2015, 10.2 percent of city of Las Vegas households were without a car, which increased slightly to 10.5 percent in 2016. The national average was 8.7 percent in 2016. Las Vegas averaged 1.63 cars per household in 2016, compared to a national average of 1.8 per household. With some exceptions, including Las Vegas Boulevard, Nevada State Route 582, Boulder Highway (SR 582) and Nevada State Route 599, Rancho Drive (SR 599), the majority of surface streets in Las Vegas are laid out in a grid along Public Land Survey System section lines. Many are maintained by the Nevada Department of Transportation as state highways. The street numbering system is divided by the following streets: * Westcliff Drive, U.S. Route 95 in Nevada, US 95 Expressway,
Fremont Street Fremont Street is a street in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada that is the second most famous street in the Las Vegas Valley – and Nevada – besides the Las Vegas Strip. Named in honor of explorer and politician John C. FrĂ©mont and located in the h ...
and Charleston Boulevard divide the north–south block numbers from west to east. * Las Vegas Boulevard divides the east–west streets from the
Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas city ...
to near the Stratosphere, then Main Street becomes the dividing line from the Stratosphere to the North Las Vegas border, after which the Goldfield Street alignment divides east and west. * On the east side of Las Vegas, block numbers between Charleston Boulevard and Washington Avenue are different along Nellis Boulevard, which is the eastern border of the city limits. Interstates 15, 515, and US 95 lead out of the city in four directions. Two major freeways – Interstate 15 in Nevada, Interstate 15 and Interstate 515/U.S. Route 95 (Nevada), U.S. Route 95 – cross in downtown Las Vegas. I-15 connects Las Vegas to Los Angeles, and heads northeast to and beyond Salt Lake City. I-515 goes southeast to
Henderson Henderson may refer to: People *Henderson (surname), description of the surname, and a list of people with the surname *Clan Henderson, a Scottish clan Places Argentina *Henderson, Buenos Aires Australia *Henderson, Western Australia Canada * H ...
, beyond which US 93 (NV), US 93 continues over the Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge towards Phoenix, Arizona. US 95 connects the city to northwestern Nevada, including Carson City, Nevada, Carson City and Reno, NV, Reno. US 93 splits from I-15 northeast of Las Vegas and goes north through the eastern part of the state, serving Ely, Nevada, Ely and Wells, Nevada, Wells. US 95 heads south from US 93 near Henderson through far eastern California. A Las Vegas Beltway, partial beltway has been built, consisting of Interstate 215 (Nevada), Interstate 215 on the south and Clark County 215 on the west and north. Other radial routes include SR 160 (NV), Blue Diamond Road (SR 160) to Pahrump, Nevada, Pahrump and SR 147 (NV), Lake Mead Boulevard (SR 147) to
Lake Mead Lake Mead is a reservoir formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in the Southwestern United States. It is located in the states of Nevada and Arizona, east of Las Vegas. It is the largest reservoir in the US in terms of water capacity. L ...
. East–west roads, north to southMost arterial roads are shown, as indicated on the Nevada Department of Transportation'
Roadway functional classification: Las Vegas urbanized area map
. Retrieved November 12, 2011.
*Ann Road * Craig Road (Las Vegas), Craig Road (SR 573 (NV), SR 573) * Cheyenne Avenue (SR 574 (NV), SR 574) *Smoke Ranch Road * Washington Avenue (Las Vegas), Washington Avenue (SR 578 (NV), SR 578) * Summerlin Parkway (SR 613 (NV), SR 613) * Bonanza Road (SR 579 (NV), SR 579) * Charleston Boulevard (SR 159 (NV), SR 159) * Sahara Avenue (SR 589 (NV), SR 589) ;North–south roads, west to east *Fort Apache Road *Durango Drive *Buffalo Drive * Rainbow Boulevard (Las Vegas), Rainbow Boulevard (SR 595 (NV), SR 595) * Jones Boulevard (SR 596 (NV), SR 596) *Decatur Boulevard *Valley View Boulevard * Nevada State Route 599, Rancho Drive *Maryland Parkway * Eastern Avenue (Las Vegas), Eastern Avenue (SR 607 (NV), SR 607) *Pecos Road * Lamb Boulevard (SR 610 (NV), SR 610) * Nellis Boulevard (SR 612 (NV), SR 612)
Harry Reid International Airport Harry Reid International Airport is an international airport in Paradise, Nevada, and is the main government airport for public use in the Las Vegas Valley, a metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Nevada, about south of Downtown Las Vegas. ...
handles international and domestic flights into the Las Vegas Valley. The airport also serves private aircraft and freight/cargo flights. Most general aviation traffic uses the smaller North Las Vegas Airport and Henderson Executive Airport.


Notable people


See also

*2017 Las Vegas shooting *List of films set in Las Vegas *List of films shot in Las Vegas *List of Las Vegas casinos that never opened *List of mayors of Las Vegas *List of television shows set in Las Vegas *Template:Las Vegas Radio, Radio stations in Las Vegas *Template:Las Vegas TV, Television stations in Las Vegas


Notes


References


Further reading

* Brigham, Jay. "Reno, Las Vegas, and the Strip: A Tale of Three Cities." ''Western Historical Quarterly'' 46.4 (2015): 529–530. * Chung, Su Kim (2012). ''Las Vegas Then and Now'', Holt: Thunder Bay Press, * Moehring, Eugene P. ''Resort City in the Sunbelt: Las Vegas, 1930–2000'' (2000). * Moehring, Eugene, "The Urban Impact: Towns and Cities in Nevada's History," ''Nevada Historical Society Quarterly'' 57 (2014): 177–200. * Rowley, Rex J. ''Everyday Las Vegas: Local Life in a Tourist Town'' (2013) * Stierli, Martino (2013). ''Las Vegas in the Rearview Mirror: The City in Theory, Photography, and Film'', Los Angeles: Getty Publications, * Venturi, Robert (1972). ''
Learning from Las Vegas ''Learning from Las Vegas'' is a 1972 book by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour. Translated into 18 languages, the book helped foster the development of postmodern architecture. Compilation In March 1968, Robert Venturi and ...
: The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form'', Cambridge: MIT Press,


External links

*
"The Making of Las Vegas"
(historical timeline)

from American Geological Institute
National Weather Service Forecast – Las Vegas, NV
{{Authority control Las Vegas, Cities in Nevada Cities in Clark County, Nevada Populated places established in 1905 Cities in the Mojave Desert Gambling in Nevada County seats in Nevada 1905 establishments in Nevada