College Station is a city in Brazos County, Texas, United States, situated in East-Central Texas in the Brazos Valley, towards the eastern edge of the region known as the Texas Triangle. It is 83 miles (130 kilometers) northwest of Houston and 87 miles (140 km) east-northeast of Austin. As of the 2020 census, College Station had a population of 120,511. College Station and Bryan make up the Bryan-College Station metropolitan area, the 15th-largest metropolitan area in Texas with 268,248 people as of 2020. College Station is home to the main campus of Texas A&M University, the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The city owes its name and existence to the university's location along a railroad. Texas A&M's triple designation as a land-grant university, National Sea Grant College Program, and National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program reflects the broad scope of the research endeavors it brings to the city, with ongoing projects funded by agencies such as NASA, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Office of Naval Research.