Onondaga County (/ˌɒnənˈdɑːɡə/ ON-ən-DAH-gə) is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 476,516. The county seat is Syracuse. The county is part of the Central New York region of the state.
Onondaga County is the core of the Syracuse Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The Syracuse Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area comprising three counties in central New York, with the city of Syracuse as its core. The three counties are Onondaga, Madison, and Oswego. According to the 2020 census, the population of the Syracuse MSA was 662,057; a slight difference from 662,577, in the 2010 census.
The central region of New York State includes:
With a population of about 784,283 as of 2020 and an area of 3,715 square miles (9,620 km), the region includes the Syracuse metropolitan area.
Syracuse (/ˈsɪrəkjuːz, ˈsɛr-, -kjuːs/ SIRR-ə-kewz, SERR-, -kewss) is a city in New York, United States, and the county seat of Onondaga County. With a population of 148,620 and a metropolitan area of 662,057, it is the fifth-most populated city and 13th-most populated municipality in the state of New York.
Formally established in 1820, Syracuse was named after the classical Greek city of Syracuse (Siracusa in Italian), located on the eastern coast of the Italian island of Sicily, for its similar natural features. Adjacent brine springs made the city a major producer of commercial salt into the late 19th century, earning the nickname "The Salt City"; it subsequently became a major industrial center until the mid-20th century, and has since been a hub for higher education, research, and services.
The Onondaga people (Onondaga: Onoñda’gegá’, "People of the Hills") are one of the five original nations of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy in the Northeastern Woodlands. Their historical homelands are in and around present-day Onondaga County, New York, south of Lake Ontario.
Being centrally located, they are considered the "Keepers of the Fire" (Kayečisnakwe’nì·yu in Tuscarora) in the figurative longhouse that shelters the Five Nations. The Cayuga and Seneca have territory to their west and the Oneida and Mohawk to their east. For this reason, the League of the Iroquois historically met at the Iroquois government's capital at Onondaga, as the traditional chiefs do today.