sentences:  As of the 2010 census, the population of Opelika was 26,401, and in 2019 the estimated population was 30,908.The Auburn-Opelika, AL MSA with a population of 150,933, along with the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area, comprises the Greater Columbus combined statistical area, a region home to 501,649 residents.The first white settlers in the area now known as Opelika arrived in the late 1830s and established a community called Lebanon.