About Austin
Established in 1838 and originally named Waterloo along the lower Colorado River, Austin has been the permanent capital of Texas since 1870, home to the University of Texas since 1883 and home today to just about twice as many Mexican free-tailed bats as city residents. Austin promotes itself as the Live Music Capital of the World, and hundreds of musicians work to make that true. A hard-core contingent of locals wants to Keep Austin Weird.
With just about 700,000 residents, Austin is the fourth largest city in Texas behind Houston, San Antonio and Dallas. It's 16th largest among U.S. cities. The Austin metropolitan area, which includes five counties, has about 1.5 million residents.