North Miami Beach, city, Miami-Dade County, southeastern Florida, on the Atlantic Ocean and the Oleta River, north of Miami Beach; incorporated 1931. It is primarily residential and has some resort facilities. The Southeastern University of the Health Sciences (1979) is here. The community, settled in 1898, was known as Fulford before the present name was adopted in 1931. Its main growth began in the late 1940s. Population 36,553 (1980); 35,359 (1990); 40,786 (2000).