Setting

SpongeBob and his friends live in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom. Bikini Bottom is like a regular city with a downtown, suburbs, coastal areas, its own airport, bus system, and fair park. Stephen Hillenburg said once that Bikini Bottom was loosely based on Seattle, Washington.^[1] An example of this statement is in the episode "Pre-Hibernation Week". Sandy and SpongeBob were fighting on a tall structure called the Sea Needle, referring to the Space Needle, a tall structure in Seattle. Hillenburg has said that he wants to leave the location of Bikini Bottom to the imagination, claiming that the Baywatch scene from the movie was just a reference to his favorite show of all time.

Bikini Bottom is a city that is the main setting of the series, located at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean,^[2] It is where the series' main characters live and where most of the episodes take place. The city consists of various businesses, including restaurants, stores, and manufacturers. The city has a stable economy, balanced education and health systems, a structured government, and a firm law enforcement system. There are even stadiums, amusement parks, and other recreational facilities.

Bikini Bottom's geography is shown as consisting of mountains, dense forests, lakes, lagoons, caves, grasslands, reefs, rivers, and barren desert wastelands.

The city is divided by its main road, Conch Street, which runs from downtown and past the homes of SpongeBob, Squidward, and Patrick, through the Krusty Krab, the Chum Bucket and the Reef Theatre cinema. The road intersects with Barnacle Road and Coral Avenue. Anchor Way is not far off from Conch Street. Conch Street runs north-south as revealed in the SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom video game. Downtown Bikini Bottom is located in the northernmost point of the city, while SpongeBob, Squidward, and Patrick's House are on the southern part of the road. Goo Lagoon is located west of the road, while Jellyfish Fields is to the east. Other establishments are located more southerly, including Sandy's house, Shady Shoals retirement home, the Krusty Krab, the Chum Bucket, and the Movie Theater. The Kelp Forest is located more southerly.

In the center of Bikini Bottom, the citizens work and live in large, gray buildings made of metal. There are some other forms of buildings, mostly aquatic-themed as seen above. Further out from the town citizens need to use whatever is available and easy to live in, such as Patrick's rock, SpongeBob hollowed-out pineapple, and the Easter Island Head Squidward lives in.

Surrounding towns include Rock Bottom, New Kelp City, Ukulele Bottom, Failiuretown, Quittersville, Loserburg, and Base 8.

Inhabitants

Bikini Bottom's populace, like that of the rest of the series, consists of various anthropomorphic fish, whales, crabs, sponges, squid, octopi, starfish, anchovies, lobsters, sharks, and most other forms of sea life, including sea monsters. Some forms of sea life, like jellyfish, seahorses, snails, manatees, and worms aren't anthropomorphic, and are treated like pets or wild animals. For example, clams represent bats and birds, snails represent cats, and worms represent dogs. The first known land creature to live in Bikini Bottom was the Dark Knight, an ancestor of Sandy Cheeks, before the 12th century. Sandy and Craig Mammalton are the only land creatures seen living in modern Bikini Bottom. Land creatures like humans, bugs and birds are rarely seen. Inhabitants of Bikini Bottom are called "Bikini Bottomites".