I just watched a video that said new York city had a population of 8.8 million as of the 2020 census but had a metro population of over 26 million? I don’t really understand where they got that 26 million from. Another example, LA, had a population of around 3.8 million but a metro population of over 9 million. Where do they get those metro area figures from?
In: 6
So its a bit of an arbitrary designation. Or at least, not rigorously defined.
A metropolitan area broadly means an area with a core city that is the economic, political and cultural center, surrounded by suburbs, smaller towns, cities, and communities whose economies are heavily dependent on or interlinked with the core city. For people living here, the core city is a source of identity, even if they don’t live in the city proper. People who live in the suburbs of NYC, LA, SF, Washington DC etc will often say they live in that city. Not only is that for convenience (people are more likely to know LA than Glendale) but its because they are substantially influenced by the cultural of the core city.
However, determining what exactly counts as part of a metro area is a subjective question. Usually the core city is fairly easy to identify, but it can be hard to decide which suburbs and small towns count, and different metrics are used. By US standards, to be included, an adjacent area must have substantial social and economic integration with the core, as measured by commuter rates.
Some countries merely say that any city with a certain population is its own metro area. Others say that the city has to have a certain population *and* have a certain number of people in adjacent communities which are economically dependent on the core.
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