Situated on a high plateau of the Mojave Desert, the Las Vegas Valley enjoys an exceptionally benign climate. Low levels of precipitation and humidity temper the summer heat while in winter lows rarely touch freezing. Even though the surrounding mountains are snowcapped in winter, it is uncommon for snow to accumulate in the Las Vegas Valley.
Since the early 1970s, the Las Vegas Valley has seen its population double every decade. As long as anyone cares to remember, Las Vegas has enjoyed an ongoing boom in tourism with well over 41 million out-of-state visitors in 2022. Tourism is the engine of the local economy with over 150,000 hotel rooms available – more than any other city in the world.
Las Vegas hosts countless conventions year-round and also offers premier sports, shopping, and (of course) entertainment venues. The Vegas Strip, a 4-mile-long (almost 7 km) stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South where much of the action unfolds, has become the city’s globally recognized hallmark.
However, Nevada and its pearl Las Vegas offer much more than entertainment. In fact, professionals, entrepreneurs, and businesspeople are attracted to Nevada for its undeniably dynamic economy and low tax environment. The state happily does without income and business taxes. Of late, the construction industry has significantly grown its share of the state economy with a thorough renovation of downtown Las Vegas gathering considerable momentum.
Nevada in Numbers
Area 110,571 square miles
Population 3,102,000
GDP $178 billion
Median income $32,100
Job growth 3% (national avg 1.4%)
Net Migration 5% (national avg 0.2%)
College educated 5% (of workforce)
Nevada Fun Facts
In 1909, Nevada outlawed gambling only to legalize it once again in 1931, just days after the federal government presented the construction plan for the Hoover Dam which upon completion in 1935 became the largest hydropower generator in the world.
Nevada has more mountain ranges than any other US state. In 1859, on the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, the highest peak (7,868 ft or 2,398 m) of the Virginia Range, the Comstock Lode of silver ore was discovered – the first of its kind in the US and to date one of the largest ever uncovered – by Ethan and Hosea Grosh, sons of a Pennsylvania clergyman and veterans of the California Goldrush. The bountiful Comstock Lode gave Nevada its nickname The Silver State. Between 1859 and 1878 the lode yielded silver worth in excess of $400 million (in today’s dollars).
In Eureka, an unincorporated town in the center of the state that advertises itself as the “friendliest and loneliest town in America,” it is against the law for a man with a mustache to kiss a woman. In the 1800s it was not unusual for small boomtowns to outlaw facial hair in an attempt to impose a bit of decorum on the local population of miners. However, the law was never repealed. It is also not enforced.
Nevada is a treasure trove of strange laws that linger on the books. In Elko, located in the northeast corner of the state, it is mandated that anyone venturing outside must wear a mask. The law dates back to the early 1900s when a terrible outbreak of Spanish influenza castigated Nevada and the rest of the country. This law is also not enforced.
And finally, the weirdest law in all of Nevada is claimed by Reno, the World’s Biggest Little City, where it is prohibited to hide a spray-painted shopping cart in the basement. The reason why Reno introduced this oddly specific law is lost to history.