Unlike many other future based science fiction films, very little about the world of The Fifth Element is given away in the film, with no opening text explanation or mid-film extended dialogue scene.

Most of the history of the world has come from interviews with the cast and crew:

• The human population has increased five fold.
• Humans have been colonising other planets through terraforming.
• The terraforming of the planets required large amounts of water, dropping the ocean level by 300 feet, exposing deep river canyons. This is exemplified when the shuttle takes off, showing New York and the Statue of Liberty a lot higher above sea level than current day.

• 

The buildings in the city were typically 200 storeys high, and 400 storeys below ground level.

In the year 2215 the city of New York has organised extraordinary races for local speed freaks to blast through.