Miami (population 399,457) is a city within the state of Florida. It serves as the seat of Miami-Dade County, that has a population of 2.5 million. This county has the highest population concentration within the state of Florida. Located in the southern part of the state on the Atlantic coastline, Miami has long been associated with tourism. Nonetheless, the economy of the region extends beyond tourism to comprise finance, commerce, culture, media, the arts, fashion, entertainment and international trade. The city of Miami is a main leader within these sectors. It ranks thirty-third amongst global cities.
The city places value on air quality, green spaces, clean water, recycling programs and tidy streets. For this reason, Miami was named "America's Cleanest City" by Forbes magazine during the year 2008.
Located in the downtown area of Miami and within South Florida is the nations biggest concentration of international banks. There are more than 150 financial institutions in the Miami region. There are numerous international and national businesses situated here, like the transportation company, Ryder System. Numerous Fortune 1000 companies are headquartered here, the biggest being Lennar. As a gateway to South and Central America, the city of Miami is home to the Latin American operations of Cisco, Disney, Exxon, FedEx, Microsoft, Oracle, SBC Communications, Sony and other businesses. Miami Civic Center has biotechnology companies, medical centers and research institutes.
The city of Miami is considered the "Cruise Capital of the World" since the Port of Miami serves as the leading passenger cruise port in the globe. The Port of Miami likewise has a huge amount of cargo departing to and arriving from Latin America each and every day. The Miami International Airport (or also known as MIA) has the 3rd biggest international passenger traffic in the US. The Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport FLL is located here, and is quickly growing into a busy airport in terms of volume of passengers.