Chandler, city in central Arizona, in Maricopa County. The city is located in the Phoenix metropolitan region. Chandler lies in an irrigated farming region and has an economy based on high-technology manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism. The city contains the Chandler Center for the Arts and a community college. The Gila River Indian Reservation is nearby.
The community was founded in 1912 by Alexander J. Chandler as a subdivision of his large cattle ranch. It incorporated in 1920 and was named for its founder. The raising of cotton remained the principal agricultural activity for many years. Population growth in the late 1980s was partly the result of the city's successful high-technology industries. In the mid-1990s the city was among the fastest growing in the nation.
