Surprise is the spring training location of the Kansas City Royals and the Texas Rangers baseball teams.

Statler was the daughter of another Arizona pioneer, Charles Gillett who helped found Glendale, specifically as a temperance community.

[5][6] Surprise officials previously thought the city was founded by Statler's husband, real estate developer and state legislator Homer C. Ludden, but in 2010 property records were discovered which listed Statler owning the land before she met Ludden.

[11] Surprise's City Hall is located on the site of Luke Air Force Base's former auxiliary airfield No.

It is bordered to the northeast by Peoria, to the east by unincorporated Sun City West and Sun City, to the southeast by El Mirage, to the south by Glendale, and to the west by Buckeye and unincorporated Wittmann.

In recent years, the racial makeup has varied due to the rapid expansion of the city.

The racial and ethnic composition of the population was 71.2% non-Hispanic white, 5.1% black or African American, 0.7% Native American, 2.6% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander, 0.1% non-Hispanic reporting some other race, 3.8% two or more races, and 18.5% Hispanic or Latino.

[citation needed] According to the state of Arizona's 2023 COG employer database,[20] the top employers in the city are: Surprise Regional Library, a $5.5 million, 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m2) library, is located in Surprise’s Recreation Campus.

Many public installations have been in collaboration with WHAM community art center which is also in Surprise.

[26] They also host several smaller community engagement events throughout the year such as Sundays in the Park and Lunchtime Theater.

The city also hosted a Golden Baseball League team in 2005, the Surprise Fightin' Falcons and the Recreation Campus ballpark and is the home city for a team in the Arizona Fall League, the Surprise Saguaros.

Most notably Surprise Community Park on the recreation campus at city center.

[30][31] Surprise is governed on the local level by a mayor and a six-member city council.

In 2019, OUAZ opened a 76,000-square-foot (7,100 m2) dormitory with 308 beds as well as a 26,000-square-foot (2,400 m2) student union with a fully equipped kitchen and dining facility, student lounge, team shop, conference areas and board room as well as the 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m2), three-story O'Dell Center for Athletics.

The community boasts four golf courses and a variety of other amenities like pools and recreation centers.