Austin, the capital of Texas, is a rapidly growing city with a 2020 population of 961,855, making it the 12th-most populous city in the U.S. and the second-most populous state capital (after Phoenix). Located in the scenic Texas Hill Country, it serves as the county seat of Travis County and joins with nearby San Antonio to form a combined metropolitan area of about 5 million people along the I-35 corridor.

Known as "The Live Music Capital of the World," Austin hosts the famous South by Southwest (SXSW) festival and the iconic PBS show Austin City Limits. The city also earned the nickname "Silicon Hills" in the 1990s due to a major tech boom, with companies like IBM, Tesla, and Apple establishing presences there. Interestingly, human habitation in the area dates back to the Clovis culture around 9200 BC, and the city itself was incorporated on December 27, 1839.

Today, Austin is home to the University of Texas (with over 50,000 students) and Austin FC, its first major professional sports team, which arrived in 2021. With its rich blend of history, government, education, and a vibrant counterculture (embodied by the unofficial motto "Keep Austin Weird"), it remains one of the fastest-growing large cities in the United States.