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is a city in Whiteside County, Illinois, United States. The population was 15,451 at the 2000 census. Formerly nicknamed "The Hardware Capital of the World", Sterling has long been associated with manufacturing and the steel industry.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.9 square miles (12.6 km²), of which, 4.7 square miles (12.1 km²) of it is land and 0.2 square miles (0.5 km²) of it (3.91%) is water.