About the town » Roanoke, City of Roanoke, Virginia, United States

Roanoke, formerly named Big Lick, is an independent city in the southern U.S. state of Virginia and is the tenth-largest city in the Commonwealth. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia. The population within the city limits was 98,641 as of 2012. It is the largest municipality in Southwest Virginia, and is the principal municipality of the Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). In 2009 the Roanoke MSA had an estimated population of 303,418 residents. It is composed of the independent cities of Roanoke and Salem, and the counties of Botetourt, Craig, Franklin and Roanoke. Bisected by the Roanoke River, Roanoke is the commercial and cultural hub of much of the surrounding area of Virginia and Southwest Virginia.