What property is used to change the background color of an element?

The property that is used to change the background color of an element is known as background-color. This CSS property specifically allows you to set the background color for elements, giving you control over the visual design of your web pages. This property can accept various values, such as color names, hex codes, RGB, or RGBA values, enabling a wide range of color options.

Using background-color is essential for enhancing user experience by improving readability and design aesthetics. It applies specifically to the background layer of the element and does not interfere with any text color set by the color property, which is used to change the color of the text inside the element.

The other options do not function as intended for changing background colors. For instance, bg-color is not a valid CSS property; it may be confused with older HTML attributes but is not applicable in CSS. The color property is specifically for changing the color of text, while background is a shorthand property that can set multiple background properties, such as color, image, position, and other settings but does not solely target the background color in a straightforward manner.