Albany, New York

Albany (/ˈɔːlbəni/ ^ⓘ AWL-bə-nee) is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York. It is also the county seat of, and the most populous city in, Albany County. Albany is located on the west bank of the Hudson River, approximately ten miles (16 km) south of its confluence with the Mohawk River. Its population was 99,224 at the time of the 2020 census and was estimated at 101,317 in 2024.

The oldest city in New York, the City of Albany is the economic and cultural core of New York State's Capital District. The Capital District is a metropolitan area including the nearby cities and suburbs of Colonie, Troy, Schenectady, and Saratoga Springs. With an estimated 1.3 million residents, the Capital District is one of the most populous metropolitan areas and the fastest-growing region in Upstate New York.

The area that ultimately became Albany was originally inhabited by Algonquian-speaking Mohicans. The area was settled by Dutch colonists, who built Fort Nassau in 1614 for fur trading and Fort Orange in 1624. In 1664, the English took over the Dutch settlements, renaming the city Albany in honor of the Scottish title of the Duke of York (later James II of England and Ireland and James VII of Scotland): the Duke of Albany. The city was officially chartered in 1686 under English rule. It became the capital of New York in 1797 after the formation of the United States. Albany is the oldest surviving settlement of the original British Thirteen Colonies north of Virginia.

In the late 18th century and throughout most of the 19th, Albany was a center of trade and transportation. The city lies toward the north end of the navigable Hudson River. It was the original eastern terminus of the Erie Canal and was home to some of the earliest railroads in the world. In the 1920s, a powerful political machine controlled by the Democratic Party emerged in Albany. Albany's population shrank because of urban sprawl and suburbanization in the latter part of the 20th century. In the 1990s, the New York State Legislature approved for the city a US$234 million building and renovation plan, which spurred downtown redevelopment. Since 2020, the economy of Albany and the surrounding Capital District has been directed toward artificial intelligence, computer hardware, nanotechnology, and digital electronics.