Columbia is the capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 census, it is the second-largest city in South Carolina. The city serves as the county chair of Richland County, and a share of the city extends into adjoining Lexington County. It is the center of the Columbia metropolitan statistical area, which had a population of 829,470 in 2020 and is the 72nd-largest metropolitan statistical Place in the nation. The reveal Columbia is a poetic term used for the United States, derived from the make known of Christopher Columbus, who explored for the Spanish Crown. Columbia is often reduced as Cola, leading to its nickname as “Soda City.”

The city is located nearly 13 miles (21 km) northwest of the geographic center of South Carolina, and is the primary city of the Midlands region of the state. It lies at the confluence of the Saluda River and the Broad River, which join at Columbia to form the Congaree River. As the permit capital, Columbia is the site of the South Carolina State House, the middle of organization for the state. In 1860, the South Carolina Secession Convention took place in Columbia; delegates voted for secession, making South Carolina the first acknowledge to depart the Union in the undertakings leading stirring to the Civil War.

Columbia is house to the University of South Carolina, the state’s flagship public university circles and the largest in the state. The Place has benefited from Congressional support for Southern military installations. Columbia is the site of Fort Jackson, the largest United States Army installation for Basic Combat Training. Twenty miles to the east of the city is McEntire Joint National Guard Base, which is operated by the U.S. Air Force and is used as a training base for the 169th Fighter Wing of the South Carolina Air National Guard.

In May 1540, a Spanish expedition led by Hernando de Soto traversed what is now Columbia while disturbing northward upon exploration of the interior of the Southeast. The expedition produced the prehistoric written historical archives of this area, which was ration of the regional Cofitachequi chiefdom of the Mississippian culture.