Cork is a university city in southwest Ireland, in the province of Munster, which had a population of 125,622 in 2016. The city is situated on the River Lee, which splits into two channels at the western end and divides the city centre into islands. Population in the larger metropolitan area was about 400,000 in the 2011 census.
Cork City is a hub of industry in the province. Several pharmaceutical companies have significant operations in the area, including Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson and Swiss company Novartis.
The economy focused on the city centre, which as of 2011, supported employment for 24,092 people (March 2012). According to 2006 figures, the top five employers in the area were public sector organisations, and included Cork University Hospital, University College Cork, Collins Barracks, Cork City Council and Cork Institute of Technology. Apple Inc. was the sixth largest employer, followed by Supervalu / Centra Distribution Ltd, Mercy University Hospital, Bon Secours Hospital and Boston Scientific.
Information Technology multinationals such as Apple, Amazon, EMC, IBM, McAfee Ireland Limited, Solarwinds, Siemens and VMware INC have a presence in the city. As of 2017, there are about 140 multinationals operating out of Cork, which employ almost 32,000 people.
Cork is an important educational centre in Ireland – There are over 35,000 third level students in the city. Over 10% of the population of the Metropolitan area are students in University College Cork (UCC) and Cork Institute of Technology (CIT), including nearly 3,000 international students from over 100 different countries.
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