Miss Universe 1985, the 34th Miss Universe pageant, was held at James L. Knight Convention Center, Miami, USA on July 15, 1985. Seventy-nine contestants competed in the 1985 Miss Universe Pageant. 19-year-old Deborah Carthy-Deu of Puerto Rico was crowned by outgoing titleholder Yvonne Ryding of Sweden.

This internationally televised event was expected to reach an estimated audience of 600 million television viewers in 45 countries.

In October 1984, the owners of the newly expanded West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Canada showed an interest in hosting the Miss Universe 1985 pageant there. This followed an unsuccessful attempt to host the Miss Universe 1984 pageant in Calgary, Canada the previous year.

Pageant organizers chose to host the pageant in Miami, Florida for the second consecutive year. George Honchar, president of Miss Universe Inc., expressed disappointment at a lack of local support for the event, which cost the city $2 million.

In April, 1985 the city of Miami requested that the Miss Universe organization insist that South Africa should not send a representative to pageant, due to the threat of demonstrations over her country's Apartheid policy. In mid May the nation announced that they would not send their titleholder, Andrea Steltzer, to the pageant because of fears for her safety. This was the first time since 1975 that the country did not participate in the pageant; they would not return to the event until 1995. Andrea Steltzer (half South African and half German) took part as Miss Germany in the 1989 Miss Universe pageant where she was a semi-finalist.

Miss Universe is an annual international beauty contest that is run by the Miss Universe Organization. The contest was founded in 1952 by California clothing company Pacific Mills. The pageant became part of Kayser-Roth and then Gulf and Western Industries, before being acquired by Donald Trump in 1996.

In 1998, Miss Universe changed its name from Miss Universe, Inc. to Miss Universe Organization and the headquarters moved from Los Angeles, California, to New York City that year. Donald Trump brought in a new team of professionals to the contest headed by its new CEO, Molly Miles, and president Maureen Reidy. The contest would use the slogan "Redefined for Today" for promotion of the pageants.

The current Miss Universe is Leila Lopes, from Angola. She won the title on September 12, 2011.

The first use of the title "Miss Universe" was as part of International Pageant of Pulchritude which began in 1926. These events, the first international contests, lasted until 1935 when the Great Depression and other events preceding World War II led to their demise. This pageant had no direct relationship with the modern event.