Miri (/ˈmiri/) is a coastal city in north-eastern Sarawak, Malaysia, located near the border of Brunei, on the island of Borneo. The city covers an area of 997.43 square kilometres (385.11 sq mi), located 798 kilometres (496 mi) northeast of Kuching and 329 kilometres (204 mi) southwest of Kota Kinabalu. Miri is the second largest city in Sarawak, with a population of 356,900 as of 2020. The city is also the capital of Miri District, Miri Division.

Before Miri was founded, Marudi was the administrative centre of the northern region of Sarawak. Miri was founded in 1910 when the first oil well was drilled by Royal Dutch Shell. The discovery of an oil field in Miri has led to rapid development of Miri town. Miri became the administrative centre of the northern region of Sarawak by 1929. During World War II, the Miri oil fields were destroyed by the Brooke government to sabotage Japanese operations in Southeast Asia but to no avail; Miri town was the first landing point of Japanese troops in Borneo. The subsequent Japanese occupation led Miri to become a target of Allied air raids which caused the destruction of oil refinery facilities in Miri. The petroleum industry continued to be a major player in the city's economy after the war. Oil exploration has moved offshore since the 1950s, but subsequently new inland oil fields were found in 1989 and 2011. In 1974, the formation of Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas led to co-operation between Petronas and Shell on oil exploration in the Miri region. In 2005, Miri became the 10th city in Malaysia to be granted official city status, the first non-state-capital city to be bestowed such status. To commemorate the occasion, the Miri City Fan was created. The 26 acre urban civic park includes a promenade, parkland, Amphitheatre, musical fountain, library and cultural centre. The Miri City Fan was masterplanned by Teo A. Khing Design Consultants (TAK).

Miri is the main tourist gateway to the world-famous UNESCO World Heritage Site, Gunung Mulu National Park; Loagan Bunut National Park; Lambir Hills National Park; and Niah National Park and Miri-Sibuti Coral Reef National Park. The Gunung Mulu National Park with its Sarawak Chamber, which is the largest known cave chamber in the world by area, remains one of the favourite ecotourism destinations in Miri. Miri is also the birthplace of the Malaysian petroleum industry. Other major industries in the city include timber, oil palm and tourism.

Miri town is named after a minority ethnic group called "Jati Miriek" or simply "Mirek", or "Miriek". This ethnic group are the earliest settlers in the region of Miri Division. Europeans who later came to the region for oil exploration mistakenly pronounced "Miriek" as "Miri", and this name continues to be used today.

The first foragers visited the West Mouth of Niah Cave – located 110 km (68 mi) southwest of Miri city – 50,000 years ago when Borneo was connected to the mainland of Southeast Asia. The landscape of Niah Cave was drier and more open than it is now. Prehistoric Niah Cave was surrounded by a mosaic of closed forests with bush, parkland, swamps, and rivers. The foragers were able to survive in the rainforests through hunting, fishing, mollusc collection, and plant gathering. The earliest evidence of human population in the area dates back to 40,000 BC in Niah Cave at Paleolithic period. This is evidenced by the discovery of a Homo sapiens skull nicknamed "Deep Skull" in a deep trench uncovered by Tom Harrisson in 1958, which is the oldest modern human skull in Southeast Asia. The skull probably belongs to a 16- to 17-year-old adolescent girl. Unfossilised Manis paleojavanica (Asian giant pangolin) bone dated back to 30,000 BC was also found in the proximity of the "Deep Skull", as well as with the Mesolithic and Neolithic burial sites inside the Niah Caves.

Charles Brooke succeeded James Brooke as the new Rajah of Sarawak in 1868. By 1883, Sultan of Brunei (Sultan Abdul Momin) ceded the Baram region (including Miri) to Charles Brooke. The fourth division of Sarawak was immediately created with the installation of Claude Champion de Crespigny as the first Resident of the Division. The Miri area was still a fishing village at that time. It was a small settlement surrounded by mangrove and Nipah palm jungles consisted of 20 scattered houses, a few wooden shops operated by Chinese traders and a lone Arab trader. A fort was built in Claudetown (present day Marudi, 43 km or 27 mi to the east of Miri) in 1883. Claudetown became the administrative centre of the division. Mr Claude's administration was helped by two junior officers, 30 rangers, and a few native police. Charles Hose succeeded Mr de Crespigny as the new Resident in 1891 and the fort in Marudi was renamed as "Fort Hose". To restore peace among various ethnic tribes fighting in the Baram region, Charles Hose decided to organise a peace conference at his fort in April 1899. This peace conference also led to the birth of first Baram Regatta, a long boat race competition among the natives which continued to be held until today.

The local population in Miri has indeed started to extract oil from hand-dug wells for centuries. Song Huiyao Jigao, a documentation of the Song dynasty of China, mentions the imports of Borneo camphor and petroleum in the 11th century. In 1882, Mr de Crespigny reported to the Brooke government on 18 hand-dug oil wells in the Miri area. He also recommended that area near Miri River should be thoroughly explored. However, his recommendations were ignored. But when Charles Hose took over the Resident office in 1891, he was interested in Mr de Crespigny's idea and began to collaborate with him. Mr de Crespigny began to map oil seeps around the Miri area, however a consultant geologist from England discouraged the oil exploration in Miri due to poor logistical conditions. After his retirement from administrative positions in Sarawak, Charles Hose went back to England. He later went to London to discuss the idea of oil exploration in Miri with the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company (later became a part of Royal Dutch Shell Company in 1907). H. N. Benjamin, a branch manager from the petroleum company, was interested in this idea. Finally in 1909, Rajah Charles Brooke came to London to sign the first Sarawak Oil Mining Lease. Royal Dutch Shell dispatched a senior geologist named Josef Theodor Erb together with Charles Hose back to Miri. Erb started to map Miri oil fields from August 1909 to July 1910. He also identified a location known as "Miri Hill" (now known as "Canada Hill", 150 m (490 ft) above sea level) is suitable to act as an anticline for oil drilling.

Finally, on 10 August 1910, the first oil drilling operation was started. A 30-metre-high (98 ft) rig (nicknamed the "Grand Old Lady") made up of wooden derricks and cable tool drilling was used in the operation by Royal Dutch Shell. On 22 December 1910, oil was struck after 130 metres (430 ft) of drilling at the well. Royal Dutch Shell also founded a subsidiary company named Sarawak Oil Field Ltd, which now operated as Sarawak Shell Berhad. Since then, another 624 land wells have been drilled around Miri until 1972 which are collectively known as the "Miri field". The Miri field is the only onshore field in Sarawak, because oil production has shifted offshore since the late 1950s. The first oil well on Canada Hill (Miri Well No. 1) produced a total of 0.65 million barrels (103,000 m³) for the next 60 years until its closure on 31 October 1972. The first oil refinery and submarine pipeline was built in Miri in 1914. The oil refinery has since been relocated to Lutong, 11 km (6.8 mi) to the north of Miri, in 1916.