Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the welcome after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the central city of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area, which has a population of 1,087,592 and a amass statistical area population of 1,383,918.

Situated along the Grand River approximately 25 miles (40 km) east of Lake Michigan, it is the economic and cultural hub of West Michigan, as capably as one of the fastest-growing cities in the Midwest. A historic furniture manufacturing center, Grand Rapids is home to five of the world’s leading office furniture companies and is nicknamed “Furniture City”. Other nicknames include “River City” and more recently, “Beer City” (the latter supreme by USA Today and adopted by the city as a brand). The city and surrounding communities are economically diverse, based in the health care, information technology, automotive, aviation, and consumer goods manufacturing industries, among others.

Grand Rapids was the childhood house of U.S. President Gerald Ford, who is buried like his wife Betty upon the grounds of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in the city. The city’s Gerald R. Ford International Airport and Gerald R. Ford Freeway are named after him.

For thousands of years, succeeding cultures of native peoples occupied the area. Over 2000 years ago, people united with the Hopewell culture occupied the Grand River Valley. Later, a tribe from the Ottawa River traveled to the Grand River valley, fighting three battles in the freshen of the Prairie Indians who were acknowledged in the area. The tribe forward-looking split, with the Chippewas settling in the northern demean peninsula, the Pottawatomies staying south of the Kalamazoo River and the Odawa staying in central Michigan.