Phoenix Metropolitan Area

The Phoenix metropolitan area, often referred to as The Valley of the Sun, is a metropolitan area, centered on the city of Phoenix, that includes much of the central part of the US state of Arizona. Also known as the "Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale Metropolitan Statistical Area," a designation given by the United States Census Bureau, it includes all of Maricopa and Pinal counties. The population of the Phoenix metropolitan area increased by 45.3% from 1990 through 2000, compared to the average United States rate of 15%, helping to make Arizona the second fastest growing state in the nation in the 1990s (the fastest was Nevada). The 2000 Census reported the population of the metropolitan area to be 3,251,876. As of April 1, 2010 the MSA recorded...