Orlando, Florida
Orlando (/ɔːrˈlændoʊ/ or-LAN-doh) is a city in, and the county seat of, Orange County, Florida, United States. Part of Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831 in 2017, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It is the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the Southern United States and the third-largest metropolitan area in Florida behind Miami and Tampa Bay. Orlando had a city population of 307,573 in the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Miami, and Tampa. It is the state's most populous inland city.
"Orlando" redirects here. For other uses, see Orlando (disambiguation).
Orlando
1843
July 31, 1875
February 4, 1885
Orlando Reeves, a soldier killed during the Seminole War
Buddy Dyer (D)
- Jim Gray (R)
- Tony Ortiz (R)
- Robert Stuart (D)
- Patty Sheehan (D)
- Regina Hill (D)
- Bakari F. Burns (D)
119.08 sq mi (308.41 km2)
110.85 sq mi (287.10 km2)
8.23 sq mi (21.31 km2)
644.61 sq mi (1,669.5 km2)
89 ft (27 m)
307,573
2,774.65/sq mi (1,071.30/km2)
1,853,896 (26th U.S.)
2,876.0/sq mi (1,110.4/km2)
2,691,925 (23rd U.S.)
4,222,422 (15th U.S.)
Orlandoan
$194.5 billion (2022)
12-53000
2404443[1]
Orlando is one of the most-visited cities in the world primarily due to tourism, major events, and convention traffic. It is the third-most visited city in the U.S. after New York City and Miami, with over 2.9 million visitors as of 2022.[4] Orlando International Airport is the 13th-busiest airport in the United States and the 29th-busiest in the world.[5] The two largest and most internationally renowned tourist attractions in the Orlando area are the Walt Disney World Resort, opened by the Walt Disney Company in 1971 and located about 21 miles (34 km) southwest of downtown Orlando in Bay Lake, and the Universal Orlando Resort, opened in 1990 as a major expansion of Universal Studios Florida and the only theme park inside Orlando city limits.
With the exception of the theme parks, most major cultural sites like the Orlando Museum of Art and Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts and world-renowned nightlife, bars and clubs are located in Downtown Orlando. Other attractions like The Wheel at ICON Park are located along International Drive. The city is also one of the busiest American cities for conferences and conventions; Orange County Convention Center is the second-largest convention facility in the United States.
Like other major cities in the Sun Belt, Orlando grew rapidly from the 1960s into the first decade of the 21st century. Orlando is home to the University of Central Florida, which became the largest university campus in the United States in terms of enrollment as of 2015. In 2010, Orlando was listed as a "Gamma+" level global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.[6]
Culture[edit]
Film[edit]
In the mid-to-late 1990s, Orlando was known as "Hollywood East" because of numerous film production studios in the area, although such activity has slowed down considerably into the 2000s. Perhaps the most famous film-making moment in the city's history occurred with the implosion of Orlando's previous City Hall for the movie Lethal Weapon 3. The same year, Orlando native Wesley Snipes starred in the film Passenger 57, which was shot predominantly in his hometown. For the next decade, Orlando was production center for television shows, direct-to-video productions, and commercial production.[76] In 1997, Walt Disney Feature Animation operated a studio in Disney's Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World. The feature animation studio produced the films Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, and the early stages of Brother Bear, but shutdown in 2004 due to the company's newfound focus on computer animation.[77] Universal Studios Florida's Soundstage 21 is home to TNA Wrestling's flagship show TNA Impact!. Nickelodeon Studios, which through the 1990s produced hundreds of hours of GAK-filled game shows targeted at children, no longer operates out of Universal Studios Florida. In the 2000s–2020s, entertainment related operations have predominantly consolidated the city's tourism-related businesses — namely events, concerts, hotels, and trade shows.[78]
The Florida Film Festival, which takes place in venues throughout the area, is one of the most respected regional film festivals in the country and attracts budding filmmakers from around the world. Orlando's indie film scene has been active since Haxan Film's The Blair Witch Project (1999) and a few years later with Charlize Theron winning her Academy Award for Monster (2003). A Florida state film incentive has also helped increase the number of films being produced in Orlando and the rest of the state.
Orlando
15
167
620
1,538
2,340
3,342
12,182
991
55
16,515