Metropolitan area

This article is about densely populated regions. For the core of such regions, see Metropolis. For other uses, see Metropolitan (disambiguation).

"Metro area" redirects here. For the dance music duo, see Metro Area.

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Satellite imagery showing the New York metropolitan area at night. Long Island extends to the east of the central core of Manhattan.

A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually comprises multiple jurisdictions and municipalities: neighborhoods, townships, boroughs, cities, towns, exurbs, suburbs, counties, districts, and even states and nations like the eurodistricts. As social, economic and political institutions have changed, metropolitan areas have become key economic and political regions.

Metropolitan areas include satellite cities, towns and intervening rural areas that are socioeconomically tied to the urban core, typically measured by commuting patterns. Most metropolitan areas are anchored by one core city such as Paris metropolitan area (Paris), Mumbai Metropolitan Region (Mumbai (Bombay)), and New York metropolitan area (New York City). In some cases metropolitan areas have multiple centers of close to equal importance, such as Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area (Dallas and Fort Worth), Islamabad–Rawalpindi metropolitan area (Islamabad and Rawalpindi), the Rhine-Ruhr in Germany and the Randstad in the Netherlands.

In the United States, the concept of the metropolitan statistical area has gained prominence. Metropolitan areas may themselves be part of larger megalopolises. For urban centres outside metropolitan areas, that generate a similar attraction at smaller scale for their region, the concept of the regiopolis and respectively regiopolitan area or regio was introduced by German professors in 2006. In the United States, the term micropolitan statistical area is used.

General definition

A metropolitan area combines an urban agglomeration (the contiguous, built-up area) with zones not necessarily urban in character, but closely bound to the center by employment or other commerce. These outlying zones are sometimes known as a commuter belt, and may extend well beyond the urban zone, to other political entities. For example, Islip, New York on Long Island is considered part of the New York metropolitan area.

In practice, the parameters of metropolitan areas, in both official and unofficial usage, are not consistent. Sometimes they are little different from an urban area, and in other cases they cover broad regions that have little relation to a single urban settlement; comparative statistics for metropolitan area should take this into account. The term "Metropolitan" can also refer to a county-level municipal government structure, with some shared services between a central city and its suburbs, which may or may not include the entirety of a metropolitan area. Population figures given for one metro area can vary by millions.

There has been no significant change in the basic concept of metropolitan areas since its adoption in 1950, although significant changes in geographic distributions have occurred since then, and more are expected. Because of the fluidity of the term "metropolitan statistical area," the term used colloquially is more often "metro service area," "metro area," or "MSA" taken to include not only a city, but also surrounding suburban, exurban and sometimes rural areas, all which it is presumed to influence. A polycentric metropolitan area contains multiple urban agglomerations not connected by continuous development. In defining a metropolitan area, it is sufficient that a city or cities form a nucleus with which other areas have a high degree of integration.

See also the many lists of metropolitan areas itemized at Template:See section.