[someone123]

The Eastern Shore has such a small population that in practice it doesn't make a whole lot of difference. The one eastern district of 20,000 or so has on the order of 1/3 of the land area of the HRM. Realistically, you could also include some areas to the north and west that are excluded so I don't think that the metro population numbers are particularly inflated given what they are supposed to represent.

Something else to keep in mind is that the other CMAs are similar, unless they are surrounded by other municipalities. The Saskatoon CMA covers over 5,000 square kilometres. Edmonton covers over 9,000 square kilometres. Toronto is almost 6,000 square kilometres.

There are also "urban area" statistics available. They exclude more semi-rural areas but have their own limitations. Fall River would not be considered a part of the Halifax urban area, for example, but there is little doubt that it is a true suburb.