A metropolitan area, sometimes called a metropolitan area or commuter belt, is a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its surrounding less populated territories, sharing industry, infrastructure, and housing.
A metropolitan area generally comprises multiple jurisdictions and municipalities: neighborhoods, districts, municipalities, cities, towns, suburbs, counties, states, and even nations such as Eurodistricts. As social, economic and political institutions have changed, metropolitan areas have become key economic and political regions. Metropolitan areas include one or more urban areas, as well as satellite cities, cities, and intermediate rural areas that are socioeconomically linked to the urban core, typically measured by patterns of displacement.
For urban centers outside metropolitan areas, which generate a similar attraction on a smaller scale for their region, the concept of regiopolis and regiopolitan area or region respectively was introduced by German teachers in 2006.
A metropolitan area combines an urban agglomeration (the contiguous built area) with areas not necessarily of an urban character, but closely linked to the center by employment or other commerce. These peripheral areas are sometimes known as commuter belts, and can extend well beyond the urban area, to other political entities. For example, El Monte, California, is considered part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area in the United States.
En la práctica, los parámetros de las áreas metropolitanas, tanto en el uso oficial como no oficial, no son consistentes. A veces son poco diferentes de un área urbana, y en otros casos cubren amplias regiones que tienen poca relación con un único asentamiento urbano. Las estadísticas comparativas del área metropolitana deben tener esto en cuenta. Las cifras de población dadas para una área metropolitana pueden variar en millones.
There has been no significant change in the basic concept of metropolitan areas since its adoption in 1950, although there have been significant changes in geographic distributions since then, and more are expected. Due to the fluency of the term "metropolitan statistical area", the term used colloquially is more often " metro service area ", "metropolitan area" or "MSA" taken to include not only a city, but also surrounding suburban, exurban and sometimes rural areas, all that is presumed to influence.
A polycentric metropolitan area is not connected by continuous development or conurbation, which requires urban contiguity. When defining a metropolitan area, it is enough for a city or cities to form a nucleus with which other areas have a high degree of integration.
