Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county chair of Washtenaw County. The 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the fifth-largest city in Michigan. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses everything of Washtenaw County. Ann Arbor is also included in the Greater Detroit Combined Statistical Area and the Great Lakes megalopolis, the most populated and largest megalopolis in North America.

Ann Arbor is home to the University of Michigan. The academic world significantly shapes Ann Arbor’s economy as it employs virtually 30,000 workers, including virtually 12,000 in the medical center. The city’s economy is then centered on high technology, with several companies drawn to the area by the university’s research and progress infrastructure.

Ann Arbor was founded in 1824, named after the wives of the village’s founders, both named Ann, and the stands of bur oak trees. The city’s population grew at a terse rate in the forward to the mid-20th century.

The lands of present-day Ann Arbor were ration of Massachusetts’s western affirmation after the French and Indian War (1754–1763), bounded by the latitudes of Massachusetts Bay Colony’s indigenous charter, to which it was entitled by its comments of its native sea-to-sea succeed to from The British Crown. Massachusetts ceded the allegation to the federal organization as part of the Northwest Territory after April 19, 1785.