2 core states · usually 4 · up to 7 · 42,373,882 people (4-state) · Mountain and Central time
Southwest states map
The Southwest is the dry corner of the country around Arizona and New Mexico. Most definitions add Texas and Oklahoma; some add Nevada, Utah and Colorado; a few add southern California.
How the region is defined
The Southwest is informal and elastic. Arizona and New Mexico are in every version — the two states are the region's core, sharing the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts, the Colorado Plateau and a Spanish–Mexican–Pueblo history. Texas and Oklahoma are included in most textbook and federal definitions (the Census has no Southwest; it puts Arizona and New Mexico in the Mountain division and Texas and Oklahoma in the West South Central). Nevada, Utah and Colorado are added by definitions that follow the Colorado River basin, and southern California is sometimes included on cultural grounds.
Arizona and New Mexico alone had 9,269,024 people on 235,580 square miles in 2020. The usual four-state version had 42,373,882 people on 574,075 square miles, and the seven-state version 54,523,826 on 873,638. Texas dominates any version that includes it; Phoenix (1,608,139) is the largest city if it does not.
States, capitals and largest cities
| State | Capital | Largest city | Population (2020) | Area (sq mi) | Included |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona (AZ) | Phoenix | Phoenix | 7,151,502 | 113,990 | Always |
| New Mexico (NM) | Santa Fe | Albuquerque | 2,117,522 | 121,590 | Always |
| Texas (TX) | Austin | Houston | 29,145,505 | 268,596 | Usually |
| Oklahoma (OK) | Oklahoma City | Oklahoma City | 3,959,353 | 69,899 | Usually |
| Nevada (NV) | Carson City | Las Vegas | 3,104,614 | 110,572 | Sometimes |
| Utah (UT) | Salt Lake City | Salt Lake City | 3,271,616 | 84,897 | Sometimes |
| Colorado (CO) | Denver | Denver | 5,773,714 | 104,094 | Sometimes |
| Total, all listed (7 states) | 54,523,826 | 873,638 |
Geography
The Southwest is the driest region of the country. Three of the four North American deserts are here: the Sonoran around Phoenix and Tucson, the Chihuahuan across southern New Mexico and West Texas, and the Mojave in the north-west corner of Arizona and southern Nevada. Phoenix averages about 7 inches of rain a year. North of the deserts the Colorado Plateau rises to 5,000–8,000 ft and holds the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and the Four Corners, the only point where four states meet. Santa Fe, at about 7,000 ft, is the highest state capital.
Two rivers cross the region. The Colorado enters Arizona from Utah, cuts the Grand Canyon, then forms the state's western border with Nevada and California; Hoover Dam and Lake Mead sit on the Nevada line. The Rio Grande runs south through New Mexico past Albuquerque and then forms the Texas–Mexico border. Both are heavily allocated and rarely reach the sea. The Pecos, Gila and Canadian rivers are the main tributaries. The Great Plains begin east of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and cover eastern New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle and all of Oklahoma.
Mountains are scattered rather than continuous: the Sangre de Cristos in New Mexico (Wheeler Peak, 13,161 ft), the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff (Humphreys Peak, 12,633 ft) and the Guadalupe Mountains of West Texas (8,751 ft). Arizona and New Mexico are on Mountain time, but Arizona skips daylight saving; Texas and Oklahoma are Central except El Paso.
Related maps
- Official versions: Mountain division, West South Central division, and the West and South regions.
- Overlapping informal regions: Rocky Mountain states, Great Plains, Gulf Coast.
- Cities: Phoenix, Tucson, Mesa, Albuquerque, El Paso, Las Vegas; capitals Phoenix, Santa Fe, Austin, Oklahoma City.
- Geography: Grand Canyon, Four Corners, Sonoran Desert, Rio Grande.