Seattle was founded in the 1850s and named after Chief Seattle, or Sealth. As of 2005, the city had an estimated population of 573,000 and a metropolitan population of around 3.8 million. Seattle is the hub for the Greater Puget Sound region. Its official nickname is the "Emerald City" (because of the lush evergreen trees in the surrounding area), and it is also referred to as the "Rainy City", the "Gateway to Alaska", "Queen City", "The City of Goodwill", and "Jet City" (the last due to the heavy influence of Boeing).

 Seattle is known as the birthplace of grunge music, and it has a reputation for heavy coffee consumption because of the many coffee companies that were founded there, including Starbucks and Tully's Coffee. Seattle was also the site of the 1999 meeting of the World Trade Organization and anti-globalization demonstrations. Seattle residents are known as Seattleites. Researchers at Central Connecticut State University ranked Seattle the most literate city in America for 2005.

Based on per capita income, one of the more reliable measures of affluence, Seattle ranks 36th of 522 ranked areas in the state of Washington.