Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas, the county seat of Travis County, and home to the University of Texas at Austin. Situated in Central Texas, Austin is the fourth-largest city in Texas (behind Houston, San Antonio, & Dallas repectively) the 16th largest in the United States, and the 5th largest city in the South. According to the U.S Census Bureau, Austin has a population of 709,893, as of July 1, 2006. The city is the cultural and economic center of the Austin-Round Rock Metropolitan Area that has a population of more than 1.5 million, and is among the fastest growing cities in the U.S.
Austin was selected as the #2 Best Big City in "Best Places to Live" by Money magazine in 2006, and the "Greenest City in America" by MSN ("Greenest" referring to a commitment to sustainable living).
Residents of Austin are known as "Austinites," and include a mix of university professors, students, politicians, lobbyists, musicians, state employees, high-tech workers, blue-collar workers, and white-collar workers. The city is home to enough large sites of major technology corporations to have earned it the nickname "Silicon Hills." Austin's official slogan promotes the city as "The Live Music Capital of the World", a reference to its status as home to many musicians and music venues. In recent years, many Austinites have also adopted the unofficial slogan "Keep Austin Weird"; this refers partly to the eclectic and progressive lifestyle of many Austin residents, but is also the slogan for a campaign to preserve smaller local businesses and resist excessive commercialization.