Columbia is a city in Boone County, Missouri, United States, and its county seat. It was founded in 1821 and had a population of 126,254 as recorded in the 2020 United States census, making it the fourth-most-populous city in Missouri. Columbia is a Midwestern college town, home to the University of Missouri, a major research institution also known as MU or Mizzou. In addition to the university and surrounding downtown Columbia are Stephens College and Columbia College, giving the city its educational focus and nearly 40,000 college students. It is the principal city of the Columbia metropolitan area, population 215,811, and the central city of the nine-county Columbia–Jefferson City–Moberly combined statistical area, with 415,747 residents. The city is the fastest-growing municipality in Missouri, with a growth of almost 40% since 2000, and a population estimated at 130,900 in 2024. Columbia is among the most-educated cities in the United States, with about half of citizens being college graduates and about a quarter holding advanced degrees.
The city is built on the oak-forested hills and rolling prairies of Mid-Missouri, near the Missouri River, where the Ozark Mountains transition into plains and savanna. At the city's center is the Avenue of the Columns (8th Street), connecting Francis Quadrangle and Jesse Hall to the Boone County Courthouse and City Hall. Surrounding Columbia is a greenbelt that includes Rock Bridge Memorial State Park, Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area, Mark Twain National Forest, Katy Trail State Park, Finger Lakes State Park, and Big Muddy National Fish and Wildlife Refuge. Limestone bedrock forms bluffs and glades, while rain dissolves the bedrock, creating karst (caves and springs), which water the Hinkson, Roche Perche, Flat Branch, and Bonne Femme Creeks. Within city limits, an extensive city parks and trails system focuses on nonmotorized transportation, including the MKT Trail. The Columbia Agriculture Park is home to the nationally regarded Columbia Farmers Market.
Originally an agricultural town, education and healthcare are now Columbia's primary economic concerns, with secondary interests in the insurance, finance, and technology sectors. Companies founded in Columbia include: Carfax, Shelter Insurance, Veterans United Home Loans, MFA Incorporated, MFA Oil, Slackers CDs and Games, MidwayUSA, EquipmentShare, and Scripps News. The University of Missouri Health Care system operates six hospitals in Columbia, several clinics, and the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment. The city also has the county-owned Boone Hospital Center, several smaller private hospitals, and the Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital, adjacent to University Hospital and MU School of Medicine. The University of Missouri nuclear reactor is the most-powerful research reactor in the United States and the sole supplier of important radioisotopes used in nuclear medicine.
Cultural institutions include the State Historical Society of Missouri, the Museum of Art and Archaeology, the Missouri Symphony, the North Village Arts District, The Blue Note, the Missouri Theatre, the Conservatory of the Performing Arts at Stephens College, Boone County Historical Society, Columbia Public Library, Ragtag Cinema, and the annual True/False Film Festival, an internationally known documentary festival. The Missouri Tigers, the state's only major college athletic program, play football at Faurot Field and basketball at Mizzou Arena as members of the Southeastern Conference. The city has been known as the "Athens of Missouri" for its educational emphasis and classic beauty, but is more commonly called "CoMo".
History
Columbia's origins begin with the settlement of American pioneers from Kentucky and Virginia in an early 1800s region known as the Boonslick. Before 1815, settlement in the region was confined to small log forts due to the threat of Native American attack during the War of 1812. When the war ended, settlers came on foot, horseback, and wagon, often moving entire households along the Boone's Lick Road and often bringing enslaved African Americans. By 1818, the increased population clearly would necessitate a new county be created from territorial Howard County. The Moniteau Creek on the west and Cedar Creek on the east were obvious natural boundaries.
Believing it was only a matter of time before a county seat was chosen, the Smithton Land Company was formed to purchase over to establish the village of Smithton (near the present-day intersection of Walnut and Garth). In 1819, Smithton was a small cluster of log cabins in an ancient forest of oak and hickory; chief among them was the cabin of Richard Gentry, a trustee of the Smithton Company, who would become first mayor of Columbia. In 1820, Boone County was formed and named after the recently deceased explorer Daniel Boone. The Missouri Legislature appointed John Gray, Jefferson Fulcher, Absalom Hicks, Lawrence Bass, and David Jackson as commissioners to select and establish a permanent county seat. Smithton never had more than 20 people, and well digging was soon found to be difficult because of the bedrock.
Springs were discovered across the Flat Branch Creek, so in the spring of 1821, Columbia was laid out, and the inhabitants of Smithton moved their cabins to the new town. The first house in Columbia was built by Thomas Duly in 1820 at what became Fifth and Broadway. Columbia's permanence was ensured when it was chosen as county seat in 1821, and Boone's Lick Road was rerouted down Broadway.
The roots of Columbia's three economic foundations—education, medicine, and insurance— can be traced to the city's incorporation in 1821. Original plans for the town set aside land for a state university. In 1833, Columbia Baptist Female College opened, which later became Stephens College. Columbia College, distinct from today's and later to become the University of Missouri, was founded in 1839. When the state legislature decided to establish a state university, Columbia raised three times as much money as any competing city, and James S. Rollins donated the land that is today the Francis Quadrangle. Soon, other educational institutions were founded in Columbia, such as Christian Female College, the first college for women west of the Mississippi, which later became Columbia College.
The city benefited from being a stagecoach stop of the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails, and later from the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad. In 1822, William Jewell set up the first hospital. In 1830, the first newspaper began; in 1832, the first theater in the state was opened; and in 1835, the state's first agricultural fair was held. By 1839, the population of 13,000 and wealth of Boone County was exceeded in Missouri only by that of St. Louis County, which, at that time, included the City of St. Louis.
The first movie shown in Columbia was screened in the Haden Opera House.
Columbia's infrastructure was relatively untouched by the Civil War. As a slave state, Missouri had many residents with Southern sympathies, but it stayed in the Union. The majority of the city was pro-Union; however, the surrounding agricultural areas of Boone County and the rest of central Missouri were decidedly pro-Confederate. Because of this, the University of Missouri became a base from which Union troops operated. No battles were fought within the city because the presence of Union troops dissuaded Confederate guerrillas from attacking, though several major battles occurred at nearby Boonville and Centralia.
After Reconstruction, race relations in Columbia followed the Southern pattern of increasing violence of whites against blacks in efforts to suppress voting and free movement; George Burke, a black man who worked at the university, was lynched in 1889. In the spring of 1923, James T. Scott, an African-American janitor at the University of Missouri, was arrested on allegations of raping a university professor's daughter. He was taken from the county jail and lynched on April 29 before a white mob of roughly 2000 people, hanged from the Old Stewart Road Bridge.
In the 21st century, a number of efforts have been undertaken to recognize Scott's death. In 2010, his death certificate was changed to reflect that he was never tried or convicted of charges, and that he had been lynched. In 2011, a headstone was put at his grave at Columbia Cemetery; it includes his wife and parents' names and dates, to provide a fuller account of his life. In 2016, a marker was erected at the lynching site to memorialize Scott. 5 years later, in 2021, the marker was removed in an act of vandalism. In 1901, Rufus Logan established The Columbia Professional newspaper to serve Columbia's large African American population.
In 1963, University of Missouri System and the Columbia College system established their headquarters in Columbia. The insurance industry also became important to the local economy as several companies established headquarters in Columbia, including Shelter Insurance, Missouri Employers Mutual, and Columbia Insurance Group. State Farm Insurance has a regional office in Columbia. In addition, the now-defunct Silvey Insurance was a large local employer.
Columbia became a transportation crossroads when U.S. Route 63 and U.S. Route 40 (which was improved as present-day Interstate 70) were routed through the city. Soon after, the city opened the Columbia Regional Airport. By 2000, the city's population was nearly 85,000.
In 2017, Columbia was in the path of totality for the solar eclipse of August 21, 2017. The city was expecting upwards of 400,000 tourists coming to view the eclipse.
On April 20, 2025, an EF1 tornado formed in Columbia caused minor damage to downtown Columbia and residential areas, and destroyed the recycling sorting facility, which could take two to three years to rebuild. Shortly after, the city announced that recycling would go to the landfill until a solution get worked out.
Geography Columbia, in northern mid-Missouri, is away from both St. Louis and Kansas City, and north of the state capital of Jefferson City. The city is near the Missouri River, between the Ozark Plateau and the Northern Plains.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is covered by water.
Topography The city generally slopes from the highest point in the northeast to the lowest point in the southwest towards the Missouri River. Prominent tributaries of the river are Perche Creek, Hinkson Creek, and Flat Branch Creek. Along these and other creeks in the area can be found large valleys, cliffs, and cave systems such as that in Rock Bridge State Park just south of the city. These creeks are largely responsible for numerous stream valleys, giving Columbia hilly terrain similar to the Ozarks while also having prairie flatland typical of northern Missouri. Columbia also operates several greenbelts with trails and parks throughout town.
Animal life Large mammals found in the city include urbanized coyotes, red foxes, and numerous whitetail deer. Eastern gray squirrels and other rodents are abundant, as are cottontail rabbits and nocturnal opossums and raccoons. Large bird species are abundant in parks and include Canada geese, mallard ducks, and shorebirds, including great egrets and great blue herons. Turkeys are also common in wooded areas and can occasionally be seen on the MKT recreation trail. Populations of bald eagles are found by the Missouri River. The city is on the Mississippi Flyway, used by migrating birds, and has a large variety of small bird species, common to the Eastern U.S. The Eurasian tree sparrow, an introduced species, is limited in North America to the counties surrounding St. Louis. Columbia has large areas of forested and open land, and many of these areas are home to wildlife.