Cedar Rapids is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Iowa and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, 20 miles (32 km) north of Iowa City and 100 miles (160 km) east of Des Moines, the state's capital and largest city. City hall and the Linn County Courthouse are located on Mays Island in the Cedar River; Cedar Rapids is one of few cities in the world with governmental offices on a municipal island.

A flourishing center for arts and culture in Eastern Iowa, the city is home to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, the Paramount Theatre, Theatre Cedar Rapids, and the Iowa Cultural Corridor Alliance. Cedar Rapids is an economic hub of the state, located in the core of the Interstate 380 Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Technology Corridor of Linn, Benton, Jones, Johnson, and Washington counties. The estimated population of the three-county Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes the nearby cities of Marion and Hiawatha, was 255,452 in 2008. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was to 126,326. The Cedar Rapids/Iowa City corridor has an estimated population of 423,353 as of 2006.