As of 2018, the population of Phoenix, Arizona was about 1.6 million…but the population of the Phoenix metropolitan area was well over four million. What’s the difference between Phoenix and the Phoenix metro area? Well, the population of Phoenix is just that: the number of people living within Phoenix city limits. But there are lots and lots of people (millions, in fact) who live near Phoenix and partake in all of its metropolitan accoutrements (airports, museums, sports teams, etc.) but don’t live in Phoenix. These people are still considered residents of the Phoenix metro area, even though their actual address might be in Scottsdale or Mesa.
The official name for this whole metro area thing is “metropolitan statistical area,” or MSA, and beyond being mildly interesting, MSA data is also super helpful when it comes to analyzing job markets, understanding housing, planning infrastructure development, considering state and local taxes, and all kinds of other stuff. Think about it: the Phoenix metro area is the most populous MSA in the state. If Arizona legislators only considered the actual population of Phoenix when making decisions (like deciding whether to expand a freeway) and not the population of the Phoenix MSA as a whole, those decisions are going to be skewed.
So what makes an MSA? First of all, there’s usually a central city (like Phoenix) with a population of at least 50,000, surrounded by several other towns and communities (like Scottsdale and Mesa) that bump the total metro area population over 100,000. In addition, the area tends to be economically and socially integrated. In other words, people commute from one area to another. Their kids’ schools compete against other area schools. They all identify the same football team as the home team. Stuff like that. The biggest MSA in the country is the New York-Newark-Jersey City MSA; it spans three states (New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania) and includes about 20 million people. As of 2018, the smallest MSA was Carson City, Nevada, comin’ in hot with a total population just a hair over 55,000.
