What Is a Metropolitan Area?

Question

Okay, when you look at the population of a city on Wikipedia, it offers the population of the city, and then the population of the "metro" area, and it is ALWAYS the larger of the two populations.

Can someone clearly explain this to me in their own words? Thanks.

Answer 1

probably includes the suburbs around it.

Answer 2

Metro is short for metropolitan. It describes the area that surrounds the city, usually with the city included in the middle.  The metropolitan area is always bigger in population, because it includes the suburbs around it.  The size of the metropolitan area is not really exact, because unlike a city it might not have an official border.

Answer 3

A metropolitan area refers to a big city and its suburbs. Due to rampant urban sprawl in the 90's, metropolitan areas spread rapidly. Sometimes, the boundary between a metropolitan area and where it ends is hard to define. I live in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, a huge urban area of 3,000,000 that takes an hour to drive across!

Answer 4

Every city has city limits (a boundary).  Sometimes cities grow outside their boundaries.  The "metro" area includes the part of the city outside the city limits.  It more accurately describes the size and area of a city.

A metro area can include smaller cities with populations that work, shop, attend events and do other business inside the central city.

Suburbs are usually outside the city and are included in the metro area.