Duluth is a seaport city in the State of Minnesota and is the county seat of Saint Louis County. The fifth-largest city in Minnesota, Duluth has a population of 86,128. Duluth is the second-largest city on Lake Superior's shores, after Thunder Bay, Ontario in its Canadian border, and has the largest metropolitan area on the Lake. The Duluth MSA had a population of 279,771 in 2010, the second-largest in Minnesota. The combined urban population of Duluth and its adjacent communities – including Proctor, Hermantown, and Superior, Wisconsin – totals over 131,000, based on 2010 census figures.
Situated at the westernmost point of the Great Lakes on the north shore of Lake Superior, Duluth is accessible to oceangoing vessels from the Atlantic Ocean 2,300 miles (3,700 km) away via the Great Lakes Waterway and the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Lake Superior is generally considered the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area.