The city lies at the centre of a heavily populated area, circled by a ring of smaller towns. This area called Stuttgart Region has a population of 2.7 million making 'greater Stuttgart' the third biggest urban area in Germany after the Ruhr Area and Berlin. With over 5 million inhabitants, the larger Stuttgart Metropolitan Region is the fourth-biggest in Germany after the Rhine-Ruhr area, Berlin/Brandenburg and Frankfurt/Rhine-Main.

Stuttgart is spread across a variety of hills (some of them vineyards), valleys and parks - unusual for a German city and often a source of surprise to visitors who primarily associate the city with its industrial reputation as the 'cradle of the automobile'.

Stuttgart has the status of Stadtkreis, a type of self-administrating urban county. It is also the seat of the state legislature, the regional parliament, local council and the Protestant State Church in Württemberg as well as one of the two co-seats of the bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart.

The city of Stuttgart ranked 30 globally in Mercer's 2010 liveability rankings, and 7th in Germany behind top-ranked cities such as Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Munich. For economic and social innovation the city was ranked 11 globally, 2nd in Germany after Hamburg and 7th in Europe in 2009 out of 256 cities.

The city's tourism slogan is "Stuttgart is more". Under current plans to improve transport links to the international infrastructure (as part of the Stuttgart 21 project), in March 2008 the city unveiled a new logo and slogan, describing itself as "Das neue Herz Europas" ("The new heart of Europe"). For business it describes itself as "Standort Zukunft", "Where business meets the future"). In 2007 the Bürgermeister marketed Stuttgart to foreign investors as "The creative power of Germany". In July 2010, Stuttgart unveiled a new city logo, designed to entice more business people to stay in the city and enjoy breaks in the area.

Stuttgart is nicknamed the Schwabenmetropole (Swabian metropolis), a reference to the Swabian dialect spoken by the locals. In that dialect, the city's name is pronounced Schtuagerd.

Stuttgart's coat of arms shows a black horse on its hind legs on a yellow background. It was first used in its current format in 1938; prior to this various designs and colours had been used, often with two horses. The canting seal pictured here reflects the origin of the name 'Stuttgart'. The name in Old High German was 'stuotgarten', with 'stuot' meaning mare, later cognate with the Old English term 'stod' (Modern English: 'stud', relating to the breeding of horses). The Old High German term 'garten' referred to the compound on the site of the original settlement. The logo of the Porsche automobile company features a modified version of Stuttgart's coat of arms at its centre.

Stuttgart lies about an hour from the Black Forest and a similar distance from the Swabian Jura. The city centre lies in a lush valley, nestling between vineyards and thick woodland close to, but not on the River Neckar. Thus, the city is often described as lying "zwischen Wald und Reben", between forest and vines. In the hot summer months local residents refer to this area as the Stuttgarter Kessel, or Stuttgart cauldron, for its hot and humid climate which is frequently warmer than the surrounding countryside of Württemberg.

Stuttgart covers an area of 207 km2 (80 sq mi). The elevation ranges from 207 m (679 ft) above sea level by the Neckar river to 549 m (1,801 ft) on Bernhartshöhe hill. As a result there are more than 400 flights of stairs around the city (called "Stäffele" in local dialect), equivalent to approximately 20 km (12 mi) of steps. Many originate from the time when vineyards lined the entire valley. Even today there are vineyards less than 500 m (1,640 ft) from the Main Station.

The city of Stuttgart is subdivided into a total of 23 city districts, 5 inner districts and 18 outer districts.