Muncie ( MUN-see) is an incorporated city and the seat of Delaware County, Indiana, United States. Previously known as Buckongahelas Town, named after the prominent Delaware Chief, it is located in East Central Indiana, about 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Indianapolis. At the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 65,195, down from 70,085 in the 2010 Census. It is the principal city of the Muncie Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Delaware County. The city is also included in the Indianapolis–Carmel–Muncie, IN Combined Statistical Area. The Lenape (Delaware) people, led by Buckongahelas arrived in the area in the 1790s, founding several villages, including one known as Munsee Town, along the White River. The trading post, renamed Muncietown, was selected as the Delaware County seat and platted in 1827. Its name was officially shortened to Muncie in 1845 and incorporated as a city in 1865. Muncie developed as a manufacturing and industrial center, especially after the Indiana gas boom of the 1880s. It is home to Ball State University. As a result of the Middletown studies, sociological research that was first conducted in the 1920s, Muncie is said to be one of the most studied United States cities of its size.