Metropolitan area

A Metropolitan Area is a large population center that consists of several cities or towns clustered together. A metropolitan area usually has one or more large cities serving as its hub or hubs, and several suburbs.

If several metropolitan areas are located in succession, metropolitan areas are sometimes grouped together as as megaloloplis. The classic example of a megalopolis is BosWash, consisting of the major metroplitan areas in the northeastern United States, running from Boston, Massachusetts to Washington, D.C.. This concept was first proposed by the French geographer Jean Gottmann in his book Megalopolis, who studied the northeastern United States.

Metropolitan Areas Around the World

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 Areda" (PMSA). The largest MAs in the United States are all CMSAs.