Auburn is a city in Lee County, Alabama, United States. It is the largest city in eastern Alabama with a 2008 population of 56,088. It is a principal city of the Auburn Metropolitan Area, an MSA with a population of 130,516 which, along with the Columbus, Georgia-Alabama MSA and the Tuskegee, Alabama Micropolitan Statistical Area, comprises the greater Columbus–Auburn–Opelika, Georgia—Alabama Combined Statistical Area a region home to approximately 500,000 residents. Auburn is a college town and is the home of Auburn University. Auburn has been marked in recent years by rapid growth, and is currently the fastest growing metropolitan area in Alabama and the nineteenth-fastest growing metro area in the United States since 1990. U.S. News has ranked Auburn in the top ten in its 2009 list of best places to live in United States . The city's unofficial nickname is “The Loveliest Village On The Plains,” taken from a line in the poem “The Deserted Village” by Oliver Goldsmith: “Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain... ”