The New York metropolitan area, also referred to as the Tri-State Area, includes New York City as the most populous city in the United States, Long Island, and the Mid- and Lower Hudson Valley in the state of New York; moreover the five largest cities in New Jersey: Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Elizabeth, and Edison, and their vicinities; six of the seven largest cities in Connecticut: Bridgeport, New Haven, Stamford, Waterbury, Norwalk, and Danbury, and their vicinities; and five counties in northeastern Pennsylvania.
As per the 2015 United States Census Bureau estimates, the New York metropolitan area remains, by a significant margin, the most populous in the United States, as defined by both the Metropolitan Statistical Area (20.2 million residents) and the Combined Statistical Area (23.7 million residents); it is also one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world, and the single largest in North America. The New York metropolitan area continues to be the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States, with the largest foreign-born population of any metropolitan region in the world. The MSA covers 6,720 sq mi (17,405 km2), while the CSA area is 13,318 sq mi (34,493 km2), encompassing an ethnically and geographically diverse region. The New York metropolitan area's population is larger than that of the state of New York, and the metropolitan airspace accommodated over 130 million passengers in 2016.