Auburn, Alabama, United States

🇺🇸 Auburn is a city in Lee County, Alabama, United States. It is the largest city in eastern Alabama. It is a principal city of the Auburn-Opelika Metropolitan Area and the greater Columbus-Auburn-Opelika, GA-AL CSA region.

Auburn is a historic college town and is the home of Auburn University. It is Alabama's fastest-growing metropolitan area and the nineteenth fastest-growing metro area in the United States since 1990. U.S. News ranked Auburn among its top ten list of best places to live in the United States for the year 2009. The city's unofficial nickname is "The Loveliest Village On The Plains", taken from a line in the poem The Deserted Village by Oliver Goldsmith.

Economy Auburn's economy is centered on Auburn University and providing university-affiliated services. Auburn University employs 4,300 people, which is roughly one-quarter of the city's total workforce. In addition, 2,400 Auburnites are employed by the federal and state government in positions which are generally connected with the university. Some 8,500 are employed in service sector jobs.

Auburn's industrial base is built around mid-sized, high tech manufacturing and research firms. Auburn has one industrial park and four technology parks where main areas of industrial focus are on the manufacture of small engines, automotive wheels, fuel cells, plastic injection technology, and vehicle armour. The 156-acre (0.63 km²) Auburn Research Park opened in September 2008 and will be anchored by a firm which specializes in research in high-resolution, dark field optical microscopy. The Research Park includes several buildings housing research in many different specialities, including the MRI Research Center which features both a 3 Tesla and a 7 Tesla MRI scanner. Overall, the manufacturing sector accounts for some 5,000 jobs in Auburn.

Auburn is located between the Kia and Hyundai automobile manufacturing facilities with the Kia Motors manufacturing plant about 35 miles (56 km) east on I-85 and the Hyundai Motors manufacturing plant about 55 miles (89 km) west on I-85/I-65.