Miami City Profile

The second largest city in Florida State, Miami is located between the Miami River, Biscayne Bay, the Everglades and the Atlantic Ocean. Popular for its great weather, sports teams and night life, this is one city that offers a great package.

Home to around 400,000 people, Miami is a melting pot often known as “The Gateway of the Americas” because of its cultural and linguistic ties to North, South and Central America, and the Caribbean. It is the third-biggest immigration port in the U.S. after New York City and Los Angeles. Although a wide variety of languages are spoken in the city, its official languages are English, Spanish and Haitian Creole.

The city is served by the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, which is the fourth largest school district in the U.S. It is also the largest minority public school system in the country, with more than half of its students being of Hispanic origin. Colleges and universities in the area include the famous Johnson and Wales University, Florida International University and University of Miami.

Thanks to its geographic location and proximity to South America, Miami is the home to Latin American operations for multinational giants like American Airlines, Disney, Cisco, FedEx, Sony etc. Other big companies with headquarters in Miami include Burger King, DHL, Ryder System etc. The two busiest ports in the area are the Miami International Airport and the Port of Miami, especially because of the cargo coming in from South America and the Caribbean. Also, downtown Miami has the largest concentration of international banks in the country.

Tourism is a big and important industry in Miami. The beaches of Greater Miami are a popular attraction, along with several nightclubs and shopping strips. An affluent and trendy area of the city is South Beach, which is well known for its nightlife. Several movies like There’s Something About Mary, The Birdcage and Scarface, and television series like Nip/Tuck, The Golden Girls and CSI: Miami were based in Miami.

The city stays well informed thanks to its extensive media network. The most read newspapers are The Miami Herald and The South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Spanish-language, El Nuevo Herald. Miami is also the 12th largest radio network and the 17th largest television market in the U.S.

Miami is a big sports city, and one of only thirteen metropolitan areas in the U.S. that have the Grand Slam, i.e. at least one team in each major sports league. Miami’s major teams include the Miami Heat [Basketball], Miami FC [Soccer], Florida Marlins [Baseball – MLB], Florida Panthers [Hockey] and the Miami Dolphins [Football – NFL]. It is also the host of the Nasdaq 100 tennis championships, one of nine tennis Masters Series events on the ATP tour. Located in Crandon Park, this 30-acre stretch is the home to a spectacularly run event, which has won “Tournament of the year” honors from the ATP six of the last seven years.

With several things ready to cater to different likes and tastes, Miami is one city bound to provide a good time to any local or tourist.