Columbus
Columbus has been dubbed a Midwestern style capital by The New York Times and is consistently ranked among the nation's best places to live. The capital city is home to more than two million people in the metro area.
With an open-minded approach to life, business and ideas, Columbus has cultivated a unique environment of thriving communities, companies, institutions and entertainment. This makes it a great place to live and gives it one of the strongest economies in the United States.
Columbus is a leading research and tech hub, home to institutions like Battelle, Chemical Abstracts and the IBM Client Center: Analytics Solutions Lab, a first-of-its-kind center that draws the best and brightest minds in technology.
The city is also a great incubator for startups, thanks in no small part to fertile ground provided by Ohio State faculty and students, and the university's investment in innovation from idea to commercialization. Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies that call Columbus home include Nationwide, AEP, Huntington, Abercrombie and Fitch, Scotts Miracle-Gro, Honda and Cardinal Health.
Its youthful, progressive spirit is fueled by a region with one of the largest college student populations in the nation, with nearly 60 college and university campuses.
New Chip City: With a $20 billion investment in two state-of-the-art semiconductor chip plants, Intel in Columbus is on track to become the largest single manufacturing site in the world.
Columbus is home to the Wexner Center for the Arts and the Columbus Museum of Art, as well a diversity of home-grown artistic companies and galleries. The Short North Arts District hosts the popular Gallery Hop and HighBall Halloween events.
Professional arts organizations include BalletMet, Opera Columbus and the Columbus Symphony, and performance venues include the Schottenstein Center, PromoWest, and four historic landmark theaters: the Lincoln Theatre, Palace Theatre, Southern Theatre and Ohio Theatre
Our food scene gets "discovered" a lot, and while it isn't hidden, we'll go ahead and take the compliment. Food & Wine magazine recently called Columbus "a stellar under-the-radar culinary destination" and ranked our city as one of the best in the country for bakeries. A couple years ago, Tasting Table called us "one of the nation's most underrated powerhouse food cities."
To get started on your own culinary journey, explore the food scene via Experience Columbus.
Feeling outdoorsy? The city's expansive system of metro parks offer oases of nature around the city. More than 200 miles of Greenways trails (the Olentangy Trail runs right through campus) connect suburbs and river trails to downtown's riverfront park system. It's easy to explore the city via rentable bikes and scooters, or using your COTA bus pass (students ride free).
Spectator sports fans head to the Arena District downtown for the NHL Columbus Blue Jackets and Columbus Clippers AAA baseball. The Columbus Crew SC plays to passionate fans in the first soccer-specific stadium ever built for an MLS team. And, of course, our own Ohio State Buckeyes engage in a wide range of athletic pursuits.
Independent rankings have cited Columbus for having the #1 zoo (Columbus Zoo and Aquarium), the #1 public library (Columbus Metropolitan Library) and the #1 science center (COSI).