Rawson (Spanish: [ˈrawson]; Welsh: [ˈrau̯sɔn]) is the capital of the Argentine province of Chubut, in Patagonia. It has 24,616 inhabitants in 2010, and it is the chief town of the Rawson Department.

The city is named after Guillermo Rawson (1821–1890), Argentine Minister of the Interior, who supported the Welsh settlement in Argentina.

Rawson is located about 1,360 km (850 mi) south of Buenos Aires, some 20 km (12 mi) from Trelew, and it is served by the Almirante Marco Andrés Zar Airport in Trelew. It lies on both sides of the Chubut River.

The city has a fishing port, Puerto Rawson, on the Atlantic coast, 5 km (3 mi) down the river.

Rawson was the first town founded by the Welsh immigrants who sailed on the clipper Mimosa in 1865 to establish a national colony.

At the time of founding remains of a mud-walled fortress existed on the site. Settlers dwelled in the fortress various months while they explored the surroundings and built permanent houses. It has been posited that the fort was built in 1853 by non-Indigenous hunters who entered the area to hunt feral cattle. The fortress was known by various names by the settlers. One name was Yr Hen Amddiffynfa meaning "Old Fortress", another was Caer Antur meaning "Fort Adventure". Henry Libanus Jones had called it "Fuerte Paz" in his 1861 Explanatory notes on two maps of Patagonia.

Between 1885 and 1890 many Italians settled in Rawson. Initially many Italians worked as railway navvies but in time many moved to work in trade.

The first bridge over the Chubut in Rawson was built of wood in 1889 by the carpenter and Welsh-language poet Griffith Griffiths (1829–1909), who wrote under the bardic name Gutyn Ebrill and established the Patagonia Gorsedd of Bards. This bridge was destroyed by a flood ten years later, and was replaced by an iron bridge in 1917. In 2001 a decision was made to rename the iron bridge as Puente del Poeta (poet's bridge) in honor of Griffiths. A plaque was installed at the bridge with information on Griffiths.