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Originally Posted by JohnN
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I saw this information yesterday in the New York Times. But IS The Villages actually a metro area? What is being included in the area? I don’t think it’s just The Villages. I think it is including places like Wildwood, Lady Lake, Leesburg, Summerfield, Oxford. Maybe these days it is including Taveres and Mount Dora and even Ocala, or is that its own metro area?
Here is part of what Wikipedia says about “Metropolitan Area,” and it increases my uncertainty about The Villages being a real metro area:
“ A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories under the same administrative jurisdiction, sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing.[1] A metro area usually comprises multiple jurisdictions and municipalities: neighborhoods, townships, boroughs, cities, towns, exurbs, suburbs, counties, districts, and even states and nations like the eurodistricts. As social, economic and political institutions have changed, metropolitan areas have become key economic and political regions.[2] Metropolitan areas include satellite cities, towns and intervening rural areas that are socioeconomically tied to the urban core, typically measured by commuting patterns.”
Where is our “urban core” that is “Densely populated”? The Villages is like a giant suburb with pleasant gathering areas and a ring of restaurants and stores. Where is our industry? Or is taking care of us the industry? Lots of people make a living taking care of us. Wikipedia lists a population density here (in 2010) of 1670 people per square mile. By contrast, New York City in 2020 had a population density of almost 28,000 per square mile. The Philadelphia metro area has a population density of almost 12,000 per square mile.