Population: 2,345,815
Increase (July 2005 - July 2006): 37,288
Dallas is a business-friendly city that has become a center for the petroleum industry, telecommunications and banking. Because of its importance in the computer industry, the area is sometimes referred to as Silicon Prairie.
It's also a transportation center; the city of Dallas expanded around a nexus of 19th-century rail lines. Today, a network of interstate highways funnels shipping from southern Texas and Mexico through the county and north into America's heartland.
