St. Louis ( or ) is a
city and
port in the
U.S. state of
Missouri. The city developed along the western bank of the
Mississippi River, which forms Missouri's border with
Illinois. In
2010, St. Louis had a population of 319,294; a 2014 estimate put the population at 317,419, making it the
60th-most populous U.S. city and the second-largest city in the state in terms of city proper population. The St. Louis
metropolitan area includes the city as well as nearby areas in Missouri and Illinois; with an estimated population of 2,905,893, it is the largest in Missouri and one of the
largest in the United States. St. Louis was founded in 1764 by
Pierre Laclède and
Auguste Chouteau and named after
Louis IX of France. Claimed first by the French, who settled mostly east of the Mississippi River, the region in which the city stands was ceded to Spain following France's defeat in the
Seven Years' War. Its territory east of the Mississippi was ceded to the
Kingdom of Great Britain, the victor. The area of present-day Missouri was part of
Spanish Louisiana from 1762 until 1803.