The Indianapolis Zoo is home to nearly 1,400 animals of 214 species and 31,000 plants, including many threatened and endangered species. It is the only American zoo accredited as a zoo, aquarium, and zoological garden by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

At 472,900 square feet (43,933.85 m²), the Children's Museum of Indianapolis is the world's largest children's museum and the fourth-oldest such institution in the world. It has five floors of exhibit halls and a collection of over 130,000 artifacts, including the Broad Ripple Park Carousel, a National Historic Landmark.

The city encompasses a total area of 368.2 square miles (954 km²), of which 361.5 square miles (936 km²) or 98.2% is land, and 6.7 square miles (17 km²) or 1.8% is water.

The Indiana Pacers were first established in 1967 as a member of the American Basketball Association (ABA) and became a member of the NBA in 1976 as a result of the ABA-NBA merger. The team is named after the Indianapolis 500's pace cars.

Dan Quayle was born in Indianapolis on February 4, 1947. He would go on to serve as the 44th vice president of the United States from 1989 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush. He would also go on to famously misspell "potato".

Official temperature extremes range from 106 °F (41 °C), set on July 14, 1936, to -27 °F (-33 °C), set on January 19, 1994.