Orlando

The land around Orlando lay within a Seminole reservation created in 1823. During the Second Seminole War the US Army built Fort Gatlin in 1838 between three small lakes just south of today's city, and after the Armed Occupation Act of 1842 the first settlers, the cattleman Aaron Jernigan and his family from Georgia, arrived near Lake Holden. The settlement was first called Jernigan; in 1857 its post office reopened under the name Orlando, whose origin is uncertain — the best-known stories link it to a soldier's grave or to the hero of one of Shakespeare's comedies. The town was laid out around a courthouse square in 1857, incorporated in 1875 and became a city in 1885.

From 1875 to 1895 Orlando was the hub of Florida's citrus industry, until the Great Freeze of 1894–95 ruined many growers. It became a winter resort in the early 20th century and boomed during the land rush of the 1920s, which ended with hurricanes and the Great Depression. The Second World War brought air bases, and in 1956 the defence company Martin Marietta, now Lockheed Martin, opened a plant. McCoy Air Force Base later became Orlando International Airport, which still uses the code MCO.

The decisive moment came in 1965, when Walt Disney announced plans for a resort; Walt Disney World opened in October 1971, followed by SeaWorld, Universal Studios Florida in 1990 and many other parks, and the metropolitan area grew into one of the most visited cities in the United States. On 12 June 2016, 49 people were killed in a mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in the city; Orlando bought the site in 2023 and is developing a permanent memorial. Universal's Epic Universe opened in 2025.

For most of the world, Orlando means theme parks, and the area calls itself the theme park capital of the world. The industry shapes local life too: many residents work in the parks, hotels and restaurants, and locals visit the parks on annual passes. The Orange County Convention Center, the second-largest convention complex in the United States, brings large trade shows and fan conventions such as MegaCon.

Beyond the parks, the city has a lively arts scene centred on Loch Haven Park, home to the art museum and the science centre, and to the Orlando Fringe each May — the oldest fringe theatre festival still running in the United States. The Backstreet Boys and NSYNC were formed in Orlando, and the city also has a prominent metal scene and active hip hop scenes. The Orlando Magic play basketball downtown and Orlando City play football in Major League Soccer.

The population is diverse. Large Puerto Rican and other Latin American communities have made Spanish a common second language, Mills 50 grew around Vietnamese immigrants, and Parramore, west of downtown, is the city's historic African American neighbourhood, built as a segregated community in the 1880s. Since 2016 the city has also been closely identified with the memory of the Pulse victims and with its LGBTQ community.

About 308,000 people lived in the city at the 2020 census, a modest number because the city limits form a patchwork with unincorporated Orange County; the metropolitan area across Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Lake counties had about 2.67 million. Growth has been rapid for decades, and new suburbs keep spreading towards the south and east.

Tourism and conventions dominate the economy, but Orlando is also a centre for military simulation and training, aerospace and defence, and health research at Lake Nona's medical city. The University of Central Florida, on the east side, is one of the largest universities in the country by enrolment, and Darden Restaurants, owner of Olive Garden, has its headquarters here.

Life is suburban and car-based: commuting on Interstate 4 and the toll roads, shopping in large malls and lifestyle centres, and weekends at springs, lakes and the coasts, each about an hour's drive away. The rhythm follows the seasons — mild, dry winters spent outdoors, and summers organised around air conditioning and the daily afternoon storm. Housing costs, traffic and low wages in the service industries are recurring concerns, as are hurricanes: Irma in 2017, Ian in 2022 and Milton in 2024 all caused damage.

Orlando has no single signature dish; its food reflects the people who have settled here and the millions who visit. Mills 50 is the place for Vietnamese cooking — pho, the beef noodle soup, and bánh mì, baguette sandwiches — alongside other Asian restaurants. The large Puerto Rican community has brought mofongo (mashed fried plantain with garlic), pernil (slow-roasted pork) and rice with pigeon peas, and Cuban sandwiches and strong Cuban coffee are easy to find, as across Florida.

Central Florida was once the heart of the citrus industry, and orange juice is still a breakfast staple, while Key lime pie appears on menus everywhere. Near the lakes and swamps, fried alligator tail turns up on Southern-style menus.

Much of the eating happens in the visitor districts. International Drive and the roads around the parks are lined with chain and themed restaurants, and Disney Springs gathers restaurants of every kind. The food festivals inside the parks, above all Epcot's long-running food and wine festival, have become events in their own right. Downtown, Thornton Park and Winter Park's Park Avenue are where residents go out for dinner and drinks.