Indianapolis is the capital city of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County. The 2000 Census counted the city’s population at 781,870. It is Indiana’s most populous city and is the 13th largest city in the U.S., the third largest city in the Midwest, and the second most populous Capital in the U.S., behind Phoenix, Arizona.
Indianapolis has shed its image as a Rust Belt city, due in part to an aggressive downtown revitalization campaign. The diversification of the city’s economic base since the 1960s has also contributed to this transformation. The city is perhaps most famous for the annual Indianapolis 500. The Indianapolis metropolitan area is among the fastest growing in the Midwest and the United States, with growth centered in the surrounding counties of Hamilton, Hendricks, and Johnson.