The Tampa Bay Area is the region of west central Florida adjacent to Tampa Bay. Definitions of the region vary. It is often considered equivalent to the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area (or MSA) defined by the United States Census Bureau. The Census Bureau currently estimates the population for the CMSA at 4,228,855 as of 2010 during consolidation. as of July 1, 2008, making it the second most populous metropolitan area in Florida and fourth in the Southeast.
A wider definition is adopted by other entities, including state agencies like Enterprise Florida and the Florida Department of Transportation, and the Tampa Bay Partnership, a not-for-profit organization created to promote economic growth in the region. These entities include additional nearby counties. According to the Tampa Bay Partnership the Greater Tampa Bay Region contains 4 million residents. The Tampa Bay Partnership and U.S. Census data showed an average annual growth of 2.47 percent, or a gain of approximately 97,000 residents per year between 2000 and 2006. The combined Greater Tampa Bay region experienced a combined growth rate of 14.8 percent, growing from 3.4 million to 3.9 million and hitting the 4 million mark on April 1, 2007 in the continuous Tampa Bay urban area.
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Famous quotes containing the words bay and/or area:
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—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“Prestige is the shadow of money and power. Where these are, there it is. Like the national market for soap or automobiles and the enlarged arena of federal power, the national cash-in area for prestige has grown, slowly being consolidated into a truly national system.”
—C. Wright Mills (1916–1962)