Bismarck (; from 1872 to 1873: Edwinton) is the capital of the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Burleigh County. It is the state's 2nd most populous city, after Fargo. The population was 73,622 at the 2020 census, and was estimated to be 74,445 in 2022, while its metropolitan population was 133,626. In 2020, Forbes magazine ranked Bismarck as the seventh fastest-growing small city in the United States. Bismarck was founded by European-Americans in 1872 on the east bank of the Missouri River. It has been North Dakota's capital city since 1889, when the state was created from the Dakota Territory and admitted to the Union. Bismarck is across the river from Mandan, named after a Native American tribe of the area. The two cities comprise the core of the Bismarck–Mandan Metropolitan Statistical Area. The North Dakota State Capitol is in central Bismarck. The state government employs more than 4,600 in the city. As a hub of retail and health care, Bismarck is the economic center of south-central North Dakota and north-central South Dakota.