Irving (pronounced ‘er-ving’) is a city located in the U.S. state of Texas within Dallas County. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the city population was 191,615; the 2006 estimate was 201,927 according to the North Central Texas Council of Governments, and 196,084 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Irving is within the Dallas–Plano–Irving metropolitan division of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area, designated by the U.S. Census Bureau and colloquially referred to as the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.
Irving contains the Las Colinas area, which was one of the first master-planned developments in the United States and once the largest mixed-use development in the Southwest with a land area of more than 12,000 acres (49 km²). Las Colinas includes the Mustangs at Las Colinas, which is the largest equestrian sculpture in the world.
Several large businesses have headquarters in Irving, including Chuck E. Cheese’s, Commercial Metals, ExxonMobil, Gruma, Kimberly-Clark, Michaels Stores, National Care Network, Omni Hotels, Southern Star Concrete, Inc., Xero Hour, Zale Corporation, Fluor Corporation and LXI Enterprise Storage. The city is also home to the national headquarters of the Boy Scouts of America. The Dallas Cowboys play at Texas Stadium in Irving until a new stadium is finished in Arlington, Texas, in 2009. The city plans to demolish the old stadium to build an extensive mixed-use project that spans Texas State Highway 114. The lead developer is Forest City Enterprises, which is rehabilitating the old Mercantile complex in downtown Dallas into a Rockefeller Center-style mixed-use project.
Part of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, which serves the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, is inside the city limits of Irving.
