Sacramento Metropolitan Area

Sacramento Metropolitan Area

The Greater Sacramento area, or officially Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Yuba City, CA-NV Combined Statistical Area, is an urbanized region and combined statistical area consisting of several metropolitan statistical areas and seven counties in Northern California and one in Western Nevada. These are Sacramento, Yolo, El Dorado, Placer, Sutter, Yuba, and Nevada counties in California, and Douglas County in Nevada. Recently it has been one of the fastest growing regions in the United States as Sacramento continues to emerge as a distinct metropolitan center in the United States as well as having cheaper housing for commuters from and to the nearby, more expensive, San Francisco Bay Area. The metropolitan area experienced a growth of nearly 20% in the last decade. In the 2000 census, the Sacramento MSA had a population of 1,930,857 (though a July 1, 2009 estimate placed the population at 2,458,355). The 2010 United States Census estimates for the region totaled a population of 2,461,780, making it the 4th largest metropolitan region in California and 18th largest in the United States.

It lies in the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada regions of California as well as a small region of Western Nevada. Greater Sacramento is anchored by Sacramento, the political center of California, the nation's wealthiest and most populous state with the largest number of representatives in the U.S. government, home of the California State Capitol and the secondary location of Supreme Court of California and was the original terminus for the First Transcontinental Railroad. Greater Sacramento also contains sites of natural beauty including Lake Tahoe, the largest alpine lake in North America and numerous ski and nature resorts. It is also located in one of the world's most important agricultural areas. The region's eastern counties are located in Gold Country, site of the California Gold Rush.