AZ · Maricopa County · 504,258 (2020) · 37th-largest US city · Mountain time (no DST)
Mesa, Arizona
Mesa lies on the east side of the Phoenix metropolitan area in central Arizona, on a plateau above the Salt River. It is the third-largest city in Arizona and the thirty-seventh in the United States — larger than Atlanta, Miami or Minneapolis.
- State
- Arizona
- County
- Maricopa County
- Population (2020)
- 504,258
- Rank
- 37th in the US
- Coordinates
- 33.42°N, 111.83°W
- Time zone
- Mountain
- Metro area
- about 4.8 million (Phoenix metro)
- State capital
- No – Phoenix
Where Mesa is
Mesa is at 33.42°N, 111.83°W in Maricopa County, immediately east of Tempe and 15 miles east of downtown Phoenix. The city covers about 140 square miles at roughly 1,240 feet above sea level and takes its name from the tableland above the Salt River on which Mormon settlers laid it out in 1878, using canals dug by the Hohokam centuries earlier. The Salt River, usually dry here, forms the northern boundary; the Superstition Mountains rise 15 miles east, and Apache Junction, Gilbert and Chandler are neighbouring suburbs. Tucson is 110 miles southeast.
Population and rank
The 2020 Census counted 504,258 residents, ranking Mesa 37th in the US and third in Arizona after Phoenix and Tucson. It is often described as the largest suburban city in the country, and it has more people than Atlanta, Miami, Minneapolis, Cleveland or Pittsburgh. Mesa has no separate metro: it is part of the Phoenix–Mesa–Chandler metropolitan area, whose 4.8 million people make it the tenth-largest in the country. Mesa grew from 63,000 in 1970 to half a million in fifty years, mostly on annexed desert.
Geography
- Salt River — dammed upstream into Saguaro, Canyon, Apache and Roosevelt lakes; below Granite Reef Dam its water travels in canals, and the channel past Mesa is normally dry. Tempe Town Lake is a dammed reach just west of the city.
- Superstition Mountains — a rugged volcanic range east of the city, part of the Tonto National Forest.
- Usery and Goldfield mountains — smaller desert ranges at the northeast edge of the city.
- Sonoran Desert — the whole valley is desert scrub; the city's canals date from a Hohokam network that watered the area a thousand years ago. See the Sonoran Desert map.
Nearest large cities
Phoenix is within the same urban area; Tucson is under two hours. Distances are approximate road miles from downtown Mesa.
| City | State | Road distance (mi) | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phoenix | AZ | 20 | W |
| Tucson | AZ | 110 | SE |
| Las Vegas | NV | 315 | NW |
| San Diego | CA | 370 | W |
| Albuquerque | NM | 440 | NE |
Is Mesa the state capital?
No. Arizona's capital is Phoenix, 15 miles west, and Mesa has never been a capital or even a county seat — Phoenix is also the seat of Maricopa County. Mesa is the third-largest city in the state. Like all of Arizona outside the Navajo Nation, it stays on Mountain Standard Time all year.
Related maps
- Arizona map — the state with its 15 counties.
- Phoenix — the state capital, 15 miles west.
- US cities map.
- Sonoran Desert and Grand Canyon maps.
- Nearby: Phoenix, Tucson.
- Southwest region · Mountain Time Zone (no daylight saving in Arizona).