Why Are Metro Areas Important?

Metropolitan areas—America's collections of cities, suburbs, and counties—are our nation's economic centers. Overall, thanks to their cumulative assets, the largest 100 metro areas alone generate a massive 75 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, and 42 of America's metros—if treated as nations—would rank among the world's largest 100 economies. The bottom line: America is a metropolitan nation.

Emerging Challenges to U.S. Prosperity

The rapid expansions of foreign economies and greatly enhanced technological capabilities have given rise to a new global division of labor that will test America's economic leadership. Those same forces, among others, have created a widening gap between our nation's aggregate economic performance and the well-being of typical American families. Environmental impacts from worldwide industrialization, alongside continued rapid growth in U.S. population, put at risk our natural environment and quality of life. This section explores five trends, both global and domestic, that underline emerging challenges to American prosperity.

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Metropolitan Areas: Engines of American Prosperity

We argue that true prosperity marries productive economic growth with greater social inclusion and long-term sustainability. In order to achieve this type of lasting prosperity, our nation must invest in the institutions, people, and places that help drive these desired outcomes. It is America's metropolitan areas, collections of interconnected cities and suburbs, that aggregate and strengthen our key prosperity drivers: innovation, human capital, and infrastructure. Moreover, these metropolitan areas boast the dense, diverse, and distinctive quality places that help to unleash the full potential of these drivers. Though encompassing just 12 percent of the nation's land mass, fully 65 percent of our nation's population lives in the 100 largest metro areas. And these metro areas generate three-quarters of U.S. GDP.

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Percentage of National Activity in Metro Areas

America's metropolitan areas aggregate its key drivers of prosperity. Learn what percent of the nation's jobs, innovative activity, educated workers, and critical infrastructure were based in the 100 largest metro areas in 2005.

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