Miami-Dade County occupies part of the southeast tip of the Florida peninsula, with Monroe County (the Florida Keys) to the south and Broward County (Fort Lauderdale) to the north. It covers more than 2,000 square miles, an area larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined.

About a third of Miami-Dade County lies within Everglades National Park. Much of the rest is former swampland that has been drained, an uneasy rural-urban mix with agriculture steadily losing ground to suburban sprawl. The populated areas occupy barrier islands between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, and coastal ridges on the mainland between the bay and Everglades National Park.

In addition to the City of Miami (the county seat), other major cities in Miami-Dade County include Coral Gables, Hialeah, Homestead, Miami Beach, North Miami, and South Miami.  Certain well-known locales, such as Coconut Grove, Kendall, Liberty City, Overtown, and South Beach are neighborhoods within one of the cities or unincorporated areas of the county

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