United States metropolitan area

In the United States, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has produced a formal definition of metropolitan areas, which are organized around county boundaries (except in New England, where cities and towns are more significant than counties as geographical and political units.) These are referred to as "Metropolitan Statistical Areas" (MAs). If an MA is large enough and can be subdivided into meaningful sub-metropolitan areas, then the MA is considered a "Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area" (CMSA), with each subdivision called a "Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area" (PMSA). The largest MAs in the United States are all CMSAs.

The following is a list of the top metropolitan areas in the United States, according to the 2000 census:

Metropolitan Area	States	Type	Population	Local nickname
New York--Northern New Jersey--Long Island	NY--NJ--CT--PA	CMSA	21,199,865
Los Angeles--Riverside County--Orange County	CA	CMSA	16,373,645	The Southland
Chicago--Gary--Kenosha	IL--IN--WI	CMSA	9,157,540	Chicagoland
Washington--Baltimore	DC--MD--VA--WV	CMSA	7,608,070
San Francisco--Oakland--San Jose	CA	CMSA	7,039,362	The Bay Area
Philadelphia--Wilmington--Atlantic City	PA--NJ--DE--MD	CMSA	6,188,463
Boston--Worcester--Lawrence	MA--NH--ME--CT	CMSA	5,819,100
Detroit--Ann Arbor--Flint	MI	CMSA	5,456,428	Metro Detroit
Dallas--Fort Worth	TX	CMSA	5,221,801	The Metroplex
Houston--Galveston--Brazoria	TX	CMSA	4,669,571
Atlanta	GA	MSA	4,112,198
Miami--Ft. Lauderdale	FL	CMSA	3,876,380
Seattle--Tacoma--Bremerton	WA	CMSA	3,554,760
Phoenix--Mesa	AZ	MSA	3,251,876
Minneapolis--St. Paul	MN	MSA	2,968,806	The Twin Cities

See also Demographics of the United States

External Resources

• U.S. Census 2000 Metropolitan Area Rankings (http://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/phc-t3.html)
• U.S. Census Metropolitan Area Estimates (1990s) (http://eire.census.gov/popest/archives/1990.php)