TX · Bexar County · 1,434,625 (2020) · 7th-largest US city · Central time
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio sits where the Texas Hill Country meets the South Texas plains, 80 miles southwest of Austin. It is the second-largest city in Texas and the seventh-largest in the United States.
- State
- Texas
- County
- Bexar County
- Population (2020)
- 1,434,625
- Rank
- 7th in the US
- Coordinates
- 29.42°N, 98.49°W
- Time zone
- Central
- Metro area
- about 2.6 million
- State capital
- No – Austin
Where San Antonio is
San Antonio is at 29.42°N, 98.49°W in Bexar County, of which it is the county seat. The city covers about 500 square miles at an elevation of roughly 650 feet. It lies on the Balcones Escarpment, the fault line where the limestone Hill Country to the north and west drops to the Gulf Coastal Plain, and its position on that spring line is why the Spanish founded a mission here in 1718. Austin, the state capital, is 80 miles northeast on Interstate 35; the Mexican border at Laredo is 150 miles southwest, and the Gulf coast at Corpus Christi 145 miles southeast.
Population and rank
The 2020 Census counted 1,434,625 residents, ranking San Antonio 7th in the US, behind Philadelphia and ahead of San Diego. It gained about 107,000 people between 2010 and 2020. The San Antonio–New Braunfels metropolitan area has about 2.6 million people; the San Antonio and Austin metros are growing toward each other along Interstate 35 and are increasingly described as a single corridor. San Antonio has an unusually large share of its metro population inside the city limits, about 55 percent, because the city has annexed aggressively.
Geography
- San Antonio River — rises from springs at the north edge of the city and flows south 240 miles to the Guadalupe River near the Gulf; the downtown River Walk is a landscaped bend of it.
- Edwards Aquifer — the limestone aquifer beneath the Hill Country supplies most of the city's water and feeds the San Antonio and San Pedro springs.
- Balcones Escarpment — the northwest of the city climbs onto the Hill Country plateau; the south and east are flat blackland prairie and brush country.
- Medina River — crosses the far south of the city on its way to the San Antonio River.
Nearest large cities
Austin is barely an hour away; Houston and Dallas are each three to four hours. Distances are approximate road miles from downtown.
| City | State | Road distance (mi) | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austin | TX | 80 | NE |
| Houston | TX | 200 | E |
| Fort Worth | TX | 265 | N |
| Dallas | TX | 275 | NE |
| El Paso | TX | 550 | W |
Is San Antonio the state capital?
No. San Antonio was the seat of Spanish and Mexican government in Texas at various times before 1836, but the state capital is Austin, 80 miles northeast. San Antonio is the seat of Bexar County. It is the second-largest city in Texas after Houston and, notably, larger than Dallas within city limits even though the Dallas–Fort Worth metro is nearly three times the size of its own.
Related maps
- Texas map — the state with all 254 counties.
- Austin — the state capital, 80 miles northeast.
- US cities map.
- Rio Grande map — the border river 150 miles southwest.
- Other Texas cities: Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, El Paso.
- West South Central division · Central Time Zone.