Bloomington is a city in south central Indiana. Located about 50 miles southwest of Indianapolis, it is the county seat of Monroe County. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the city had a total population of 69,291. Bloomington is the 7th largest city in Indiana. Bloomington is the home of Indiana University's flagship campus (established in 1820) attended by about 40,000 students and the largest and original campus of the Indiana University system. It is also the home of the Kinsey Institute.

Bloomington's Indiana University campus is regarded as one of the most beautiful university campuses in the U.S. In 1991, Thomas Gaines, a landscape artist, published a book, The Campus As a Work of Art, and in it he named the Bloomington campus one of the five most beautiful campuses in America. Most of the campus buildings are built of Indiana limestone. Due to the presence of the university, Bloomington is more diverse demographically than is typical for the state. Bloomington has been named a Tree City for more than 20 years. The city was the site of the Academy Award-winning movie Breaking Away, featuring the annual IU bicycle race Little 500.