McAllen is the twenty-second most populous city in Texas and the largest city in Hidalgo County, Texas.  It is located at the southern tip of Texas in the Rio Grande Valley (not a geographical valley) and is part of the Southern United States.

From its settlement in 1904, the area around McAllen was largely rural and agricultural in character, but the latter half of the 20th century saw steady growth, which accelerated during the 1980s, leading to an economic and population boom in the 1990s and 2000s.

McAllen is a regional retail destination for northeastern  Mexican states. While McAllen's total population is 20th among Texas cities, it ranks 12th overall retail sales, and third in the state in total retail sales both per household and per capital.