Cincinnati (OH)

Cincinnati. A city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Ohio. Nicknamed “Cincy.” Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line with Kentucky. The population of Cincinnati was 309,317 in 2020, making it the third-most populous city in Ohio after Columbus and Cleveland.

Throughout much of the 19th century, Cincinnati was among the top 10 U.S. cities by population. The city developed as a river town for cargo shipping by steamboats, located at the crossroads of the Northern and Southern states, with fewer immigrants and less influence from Europe than East Coast cities in the same period.

It received a significant number of German-speaking immigrants, who founded many of the city’s cultural institutions. It later developed an industrialized economy in manufacturing. Many structures in the urban core have remained intact for 200 years; in the late 1800s, Cincinnati was commonly referred to as the “Paris of America” due mainly to ambitious architectural projects such as the Music Hall, Cincinnatian Hotel, and Roebling Bridge.

Cincinnati is home to several Fortune 500 companies including Procter & Gamble. It is home to three professional sports teams: the Cincinnati Reds of Major League Baseball; the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League; and FC Cincinnati of Major League Soccer; it is also home to the Cincinnati Cyclones, a minor league ice hockey team.

The city’s largest institution of higher education, the University of Cincinnati, was founded in 1819 as a municipal college and is now ranked as one of the 50 largest in the U.S.

Cincinnati is the birthplace of William Howard Taft, the 27th President and 10th Chief Justice of the U.S Supreme Court. Recently, Cincinnati has been named among the 100 most livable cities in the world, at number 88, and is on many Best Places to Live lists, including Livability.com and U.S. News & World Report. Forbes ranked Cincinnati as the 5th best city for young professionals in 2023.