Washington Metropolitan Area
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The Washington Metropolitan Area, xxxxally known as the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV MSA is a U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) as defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as of November 2004. It is also part of the larger Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. As of 2007, the population of the area is 5,290,400

Composition

Washington Metropolitan Area includes the District of Columbia and parts of the States of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. It is divided into two metropolitan divisions: the Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick, MD Metropolitan Division, consisting of Montgomery and Frederick counties; and the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Division, comprising the majority of the metropolitan area.

The Virginia portion of the area is known as Northern Virginia.

Maryland
The following counties are categorized as part of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area:

Calvert County
Charles County
Frederick County
Montgomery County
Prince George's County
Washington County
Though associated with the Washington Metropolitan Area, the following counties are categorized as part of the Baltimore-Towson, MD Metropolitan Statistical Area:

Anne Arundel County
Howard County
Though associated with the Washington Metropolitan Area, the following county is categorized as part of the Lexington Park, MD Micropolitan Statistical Area:

St. Mary's County

Virginia
Counties

Arlington County
Clarke County
Fairfax County
Fauquier County
Loudoun County
Prince William County
Spotsylvania County
Stafford County
Warren County
Independent cities:

City of Alexandria
City of Fairfax
City of Falls Church
City of Fredericksburg
City of Manassas
City of Manassas Park

West Virginia
Jefferson County

Principal Cities
The metropolitan area includes the following principal cities (not all of which are incorporated as cities):

Washington, D.C.
Arlington, Virginia
Alexandria, Virginia
Bethesda, Maryland
Bowie, Maryland
Frederick, Maryland
Gaithersburg, Maryland
Hagerstown, Maryland
Herndon, Virginia
Reston, Virginia
Rockville, Maryland
Silver Spring, Maryland
Tysons Corner, Virginia
Waldorf, Maryland

City Definition in Virginia
Due to a state constitutional change in 1871, all cities in Virginia are independent cities and they are not legally located in any county. The OMB considers these independent cities to be county-equivalents for the purpose of defining MSAs in Virginia. Each MSA is listed by its counties, then cities, each in alphabetical order, and not by size.