Auburn is a city in Cayuga County, New York, United States. Located at the north end of Owasco Lake, one of the Finger Lakes in Central New York, the city had a population of 26,866 at the 2020 census. It is the largest city of Cayuga County, the county seat, and the site of the maximum-security Auburn Correctional Facility, as well as the William H. Seward House Museum and the house of abolitionist Harriet Tubman.

The region around Auburn had been Haudenosaunee territory for centuries before European contact and historical records.

Auburn was founded in 1793, during the post-Revolutionary period of settlement of western New York. The founder, John L. Hardenbergh, was a veteran of the Sullivan-Clinton campaign against the Iroquois during the American Revolution. Members of the Haudenosaunee allied with the British during the American Revolution, and the Sullivan Campaign, ordered by the American military general George Washington, aimed to crush Haudenosaunee forces in the area. According to historian Robin Bernstein, the Sullivan Campaign and its soldiers destroyed "at least forty Native communities." After the war, Hardenbergh was granted a tract of land, Military Tract 47, from the very territory he fought to remove the Haudenosaunee from. Hardenbergh settled in the vicinity of the Owasco River on Military Tract 47 with his infant daughter and two enslaved African-Americans, Harry and Kate Freeman. After his death in 1806, Hardenbergh was buried in Auburn's North Street Cemetery, and was re-interred in 1852 in Fort Hill Cemetery – the first burial in the city's newly opened burial ground. The community grew up around Hardenbergh's gristmill and sawmill. Harry and Kate Freeman were eventually released by the Hardenbergh family, with Kate freed in 1805 before John Hardenbergh's death, and Harry seven months later by Hardenbergh's heirs.

Originally known as Hardenbergh's Corners in the town of Aurelius, the settlement was renamed Auburn in 1805 when it became the county seat. It became an incorporated village in 1815, and was chartered as a city in 1848. It was only a few miles from the Erie Canal, which opened in 1825 and allowed local factories to inexpensively ship goods north or south. In 1871, the Southern Central Railroad, financed by the Lehigh Valley Railroad, completed a line primarily to carry anthracite coal from Athens, Pennsylvania through Auburn to wharves on Lake Ontario at Fair Haven.

From 1818 to 1939, Auburn was home to Auburn Theological Seminary, one of the preeminent theological seminaries in the United States. In 1939, facing financial difficulties as a result of the Great Depression, the seminary moved to the campus of Union Theological Seminary in New York City. The only building from the Auburn Theological Seminary that stands today is Willard Memorial Chapel and the adjacent Welch Memorial Hall on Nelson Street, designed by Andrew Jackson Warner of Rochester, with stained-glass windows and interior decoration by Louis Comfort Tiffany. It is the only complete and unaltered Tiffany chapel interior known to exist.

In 1816, Auburn Prison (now the Auburn Correctional Facility) was founded as a model for the contemporary ideas about treating prisoners, known now as the Auburn system. Visitors were charged a fee for viewing the facility and its inmates. On August 6, 1890, the first execution by the electric chair was carried out at Auburn Prison. In 1901 Leon Czolgosz, assassin of President William McKinley, was executed there. Although the ideas of the Auburn System have been abandoned, the prison continues to serve as a maximum security facility, and is one of the most secure prisons in the continental United States.

Auburn is located at 42.9317° N, 76.5661° W at the north end of Owasco Lake, one of the Finger Lakes, which is drained by the Owasco Outlet – also known as the Owasco River – which runs north through the city on its way to the Seneca River. A dam, owned and operated by the city, controls the outflow of the lake, which is used for drinking water and recreation. The city is required to keep a sufficient amount of water in the river to deal with the effluent from its waste disposal treatment facility.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 8.4 square miles (21.8 km), of which 8.3 square miles (21.6 km) is land and 0.08 square miles (0.2 km), or 0.89%, is water.

US 20 is an important east-west highway passing through the city, and New York State Route 34 and New York State Route 38 are north-south highways that intersect US-20 in Auburn. Seneca Falls is 15 miles (24 km) west on US 20, and Syracuse is 26 miles (42 km) to the northeast via New York State Route 5.

This climatic region is typified by large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and cold (sometimes severely cold) winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Auburn has a humid continental climate, abbreviated "Dfb" on climate maps.

Historical population

Census	Pop.	Note	%±
1810	500		—
1820	2,333		366.6%
1830	4,486		92.3%
1840	5,626		25.4%
1850	9,548		69.7%
1860	10,986		15.1%
1870	17,225		56.8%
1880	21,924		27.3%
1890	25,858		17.9%
1900	30,345		17.4%
1910	34,668		14.2%
1920	36,192		4.4%
1930	36,652		1.3%
1940	35,753		−2.5%
1950	36,722		2.7%
1960	35,249		−4.0%
1970	34,599		−1.8%
1980	32,548		−5.9%
1990	31,258		−4.0%
2000	28,574		−8.6%
2010	27,687		−3.1%
2020	26,866		−3.0%
U.S. Decennial Census

As of the census of 2000, there were 28,574 people, 11,411 households, and 6,538 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,405.3 inhabitants per square mile (1,314.8/km). There were 12,637 housing units at an average density of 1,506.0 per square mile (581.5/km). The racial makeup of the city was 88.57% White, 7.59% African American, 0.29% Native American, 0.57% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 1.41% from other races, and 1.55% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 2.82% of the population.

There were 11,411 households, out of which 28.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.3% were married couples living together, 14.7% had a female householder with no partner present, and 42.7% were non-families. 36.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.27 and the average family size was 2.98.

In the city, the population was spread out, with 22.8% under the age of 18, 9.3% from 18 to 24, 30.3% from 25 to 44, 19.8% from 45 to 64, and 17.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 99.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.8 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $30,281, and the median income for a family was $41,169. Males had a median income of $32,349 versus $23,330 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,083. About 12.5% of families and 16.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.9% of those under age 18 and 10.2% of those age 65 or over.

The Auburn Enlarged City School District is the public school system serving Auburn. It currently operates seven schools covering grades K–12. West Middle School was closed over the summer of 2011 to save funds, with the student population merged into East Middle School.

The only college in Auburn is Cayuga Community College, a two-year school. C.C.C., as it is known locally, is located on Franklin Street. The city had been the home of Auburn Theological Seminary, a Presbyterian institution established in 1818, which relocated to New York City in 1939.

Auburn has had a long association with professional baseball. The Auburn Cayugas and other early Auburn teams played as members of the League Alliance (1877), Central New York League (1888), New York State League (1889, 1897–1899), Empire State League (1906–1907), Canadian–American League (1938, 1940) and Border League (1946–1951). Auburn was an affiliate of the Boston Red Sox (1948).

Today, Auburn is home to the Auburn Doubledays, members of the collegiate wooden bat Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League.

In late 1901, Auburn became the headquarters of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (NAPBL), which is now known simply as Minor League Baseball and based in St. Petersburg, Florida. John H. Farrell, who served as secretary-treasurer of the league for many years, was a local resident, and the league's offices remained in the city while he remained in that role.

Auburn Community Baseball, which is owned by the City of Auburn, is the parent organization of the Auburn Doubledays and its predecessor Auburn entries in the Class A short-season New York–Penn League dating back to 1958. The team plays its home games at Leo Pinckney Field at Falcon Park. Until 2020 they were members of the New York-Penn League.

Since 1978, on the second Sunday of every August, Auburn has hosted "The Great Race", a three- or four-person relay race involving running, cycling, and canoeing (or kayaking). The race begins and ends in the area of Owasco Lake on the southern outskirts of Auburn. With between 2,000 and 2,500 people participating in an average year, it is one of the largest relay races in the United States.

The daily newspaper published in Auburn is The Citizen, which dates back to 1816, and had previously been published as The Daily Advertiser and The Citizen-Advertiser. It serves Auburn and Cayuga County, as well as other parts of Central New York. A morning paper, published seven days a week, it has a circulation of 10,000 for the daily and Saturday editions, and 12,000 on Sunday. It is owned by Lee Enterprises.