Little Rock is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city’s population was 204,405 in 2022, according to the United States Census Bureau. As the county chair of Pulaski County, the city was incorporated upon November 7, 1831, on the south bank of the Arkansas River near to the state’s geographic center. The city derived its say from a rock formation along the river, named the “Little Rock” (French: Le Petit Rocher) by the French trailblazer Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe in 1722. The capital of the Arkansas Territory was moved to Little Rock from Arkansas Post in 1821. The six-county Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway, AR Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is ranked 81st in terms of population in the United States considering 748,031 residents according to the 2020 estimate by the United States Census Bureau.

Little Rock is a cultural, economic, government, and transportation center within Arkansas and the South. Several cultural institutions are in Little Rock, such as the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, and the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, in addition to hiking, boating, and extra outdoor recreational opportunities. Little Rock’s history is available through history museums, historic districts or neighborhoods of Little Rock when the Quapaw Quarter, and historic sites such as Little Rock Central High School. The city is the headquarters of Dillard’s, Windstream Communications, Stephens Inc., University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Heifer International, Winrock International, the Clinton Foundation, and the Rose Law Firm.

Little Rock derives its proclaim from a small rock formation upon the south bank of the Arkansas River called the “Little Rock” (French: La Petite Roche). The Little Rock was used by before river traffic as a landmark and became a Famous river crossing. The Little Rock is across the river from The Big Rock, a large bluff at the edge of the river, which was taking into account used as a rock quarry.

Archeological artifacts allow evidence of Native Americans inhabiting Central Arkansas for thousands of years in the past Europeans arrived. The to come inhabitants may have been the Folsom people, Bluff Dwellers, and Mississippian culture peoples who built earthwork mounds recorded in 1541 by Spanish entrepreneur Hernando de Soto. Historical tribes of the area are the Caddo, Quapaw, Osage, Choctaw, and Cherokee.