Arizona

Overview

Arizona, the Grand Canyon State, is a state of the southwestern United States, admitted as the 48th state in 1912 after being organized as a territory in 1863 (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Its capital is Phoenix, its area is 113,990 square miles, and its population was 7,151,502 in the 2020 census, with a July 2025 estimate of 7,623,818 (Encyclopaedia Britannica). It is bordered by Mexico and the US states of Utah, New Mexico, California, and Nevada, and its highest point is Humphreys Peak at 12,633 feet (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Humans settled the area more than 25,000 years ago, and nomadic Apache and Navajo peoples arrived after the collapse of the Ancestral Pueblo and Hohokam civilizations (Encyclopaedia Britannica). They were followed in the 16th century by Spanish treasure seekers from Mexico, including Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, establishing Mexico’s claim to the area (Encyclopaedia Britannica). In 1776 the Mexican army built a presidio at Tucson, and after the Mexican War, Arizona was ceded to the United States as part of New Mexico in 1848, with the Gadsden Purchase adding territory in 1853 (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Though still lightly populated, the state has grown rapidly in recent decades, largely because of its climate (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Measure	Figure	Source
2020 census population	7,151,502	US Census Bureau
July 2025 estimate	7,623,818 (up 6.5% from the 2020 base)	US Census Bureau
Hispanic or Latino share	32.5%	US Census Bureau
Copper share of US output, 2024	More than 70%	US Geological Survey

The canyon that names the state

Arizona is the site of Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest national parks, and it contains much of America’s Indian tribal lands (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Grand Canyon National Park, a vast scenic area of northwestern Arizona, was created in 1919 and greatly enlarged in 1975, with an area of 1,902 square miles (Encyclopaedia Britannica). In 1979 the park was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site (Encyclopaedia Britannica). The canyon itself winds for 277 miles from the mouth of the Paria River, near Lees Ferry and the northern boundary of Arizona with Utah, to Grand Wash Cliffs near the Nevada state line (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

The canyon consists of a broad, intricately sculptured chasm of peaks, buttes, gorges, and ravines formed over the past six million years by the cutting action of the Colorado River (Encyclopaedia Britannica). It is at its widest and deepest in the 56-mile stretch where the river bends from flowing south to flowing west and northwest, attaining widths of up to 18 miles and depths of some 6,000 feet below the canyon rims (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Tourism in earnest began at the turn of the 20th century, after the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway completed a rail line to the South Rim in 1901 and the El Tovar hotel opened in 1905 (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Some four to five million people visit the park each year (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Three Indian reservations border long stretches of the park: Navajo to the east and Havasupai and Hualapai to the south (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Copper, water, and a fast-growing desert state

Arizona’s other nickname could be the Copper State, and the numbers justify it. Arizona is the leading copper-producing state, accounting for more than 70% of domestic output in 2024 (US Geological Survey). In 2019, total US copper production was 1.87 million metric tons, with Arizona accounting for 73 percent, followed by Utah at 12 percent, New Mexico at 10 percent, and Nevada at 4 percent (US Geological Survey). Most of the region’s copper comes from low-grade porphyry deposits, which are the world’s largest source of copper (US Geological Survey). The stat that anchors the economic story is that single share — more than seven-tenths of American copper from one desert state — and its implication runs straight into the energy transition, since copper is vital for wind turbines, solar panels, electric vehicles, batteries, and transmission lines (US Geological Survey).

Copper’s tension with water is smaller than the popular picture suggests, and the USGS says so plainly. Mining accounted for about 1 percent of total water use in Arizona in 2015, while agriculture took 77 percent and municipal use 20 percent (US Geological Survey). The pressure that matters is the basin-wide one: the years 2000 through 2020 were the driest 21-year period in the Colorado River Basin in more than 100 years, and mining’s groundwater pumping can locally lower water-table elevations by tens of feet for several miles around a mine site (US Geological Survey). Growth compounds the picture: the Census Bureau counts 6,392,017 Arizonans in 2010 and 7,151,502 in 2020, with a July 2025 estimate of 7,623,818, a 6.5 percent rise from the 2020 estimates base (US Census Bureau). About one-fifth of the population is Spanish-speaking, while about 5 percent is American Indian, including Navajo, Hopi, Apache, Papago, and Pima peoples (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Scottsdale’s law firm

Most state profiles stop at the canyon and the mines. Arizona’s less-photographed export is legal advocacy: the Alliance Defending Freedom lists its mailing address as 15100 North 90th Street, Scottsdale, AZ 85260-5260 (MinistryWatch). The organization was formed in 1993, formerly as the Alliance Defense Fund, and describes itself as the world’s largest legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, marriage and family, parental rights, and the sanctity of life (MinistryWatch). Chalkbeat Colorado, reporting in July 2026, likewise describes ADF as an Arizona-based conservative law firm and legal advocacy group (Chalkbeat). That Scottsdale base is the reason an Arizona profile belongs in the same graph as the Colorado and Pakistan profiles: the same organization’s lawyers appear in the Colorado school-book defense and in the Pakistan forced-marriage litigation, and their institutional home is this state.

What this profile does not claim

This profile does not claim that Alliance Defending Freedom was founded in Arizona — only that it is based in Scottsdale now, on the evidence of its mailing address and Chalkbeat’s description. It does not claim a single settled total area: Britannica’s 113,990 square miles is total area, while the Census Bureau’s 113,653.42 square miles is land area, and the two are labelled separately. It does not claim a specific recent-year Grand Canyon visitor count beyond Britannica’s four-to-five-million range, and it does not claim a current governor, legislature composition, or any tribal population figure, none of which appears in the sources relied on here.