The biggest metros
Here are the nation's largest metropolitan areas — regions centered on one or more cities of at least 50,000 people.
Metro area 2000 pop. 2006 pop. Pct. chg. Metro area 2000 pop. 2006 pop. Pct. chg.
New York 18,323,382 18,818,536 2.7% Boston 4,392,340 4,455,217 1.4%
Los Angeles 12,365,619 12,950,129 4.7% San Francisco-Oakland 4,123,742 4,180,027 1.4%
Chicago 9,098,615 9,505,748 4.5% Phoenix 3,251,876 4,039,182 24.2%
Dallas-Fort Worth 5,161,518 6,003,967 16.3% Riverside, Calif. 3,254,821 4,026,135 23.7%
Philadelphia 5,687,141 5,826,742 2.5% Seattle-Tacoma 3,043,885 3,263,497 7.2%
Houston 4,715,402 5,539,949 17.5% Minneapolis-St. Paul 2,968,817 3,175,041 6.9%
Miami-Dade 5,007,988 5,463,857 9.1% San Diego 2,813,833 2,941,454 4.5%
Washington 4,796,180 5,290,400 10.3% St. Louis 2,698,672 2,796,368 3.6%
Atlanta 4,248,012 5,138,223 21.0% Tampa-St. Petersburg 2,396,013 2,697,731 12.6%
Detroit 4,452,557 4,468,966 0.4%