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Greater Bridgeport is the metropolitan area centered on the city of Bridgeport in the U.S. state of Connecticut. The area is located in Southwestern Connecticut and consists of the city of Bridgeport and five other adjacent towns – Easton, Fairfield, Monroe, Stratford, and Trumbull. The area is often considered to be part of the labor market region of the New York metropolitan area.

Contents 1 Definitions 1.1 Greater Bridgeport Region 1.2 Bridgeport Labor Market Area 1.3 Bridgeport-Stamford NECTA 1.4 Metropolitan Statistical Area 2 References 3 See also

The smallest official definition of Greater Bridgeport is the area under the authority of the Greater Bridgeport Regional Planning Agency, which oversees transportation, land use and economic development planning for its member towns. The region consists of the six towns indicated in the introduction.^[1]

The Bridgeport Labor Market Area includes the core region above and also extends northeast into the Valley region, which includes the towns of Ansonia, Derby, Shelton, and Seymour. It additionally includes the outlying towns of Beacon Falls, Oxford, and Milford for a total of 13 towns.^[2]

The urbanized areas of Stamford and Bridgeport are indistinguishable and is considered by the U.S. Census Bureau as a single urban core.^[3] The towns containing this merged urbanized area, plus surrounding towns with significant commuter interchange to the central towns, are grouped together as the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk New England City and Town Area. The area contains 25 towns and includes the Greater Bridgeport Region (6 towns), the Valley (4 towns), the Gold Coast (8 towns), and the additional outlying towns of Milford, Newtown, Redding, Ridgefield, Oxford, Southbury, and Woodbridge.^[4] As of the 2000 census, the population of the NECTA was 892,283^[5]

A slightly smaller definition known as the Southwest Service Delivery Area consists of the Greater Bridgeport Region, the Valley, the Gold Coast, plus the towns of Milford and Oxford (20 towns).^[6]

The nationally used statistical definition of metropolitan areas by the U.S. Census Bureau is the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) and uses counties as building blocks. The MSA associated with Bridgeport is the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk MSA and consists of the entirety of Fairfield County with 23 towns.^[7] While statistically similar in terms of population and extent to the NECTA definition, the MSA includes the city of Danbury and its suburbs, and excludes the Valley region. As of 2005, the estimated population of the MSA was 902,775.^[8]

1. ^ Greater Bridgeport Regional Planning Agency
2. ^ Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development - Labor Market Areas
3. ^ Urbanized area maps
4. ^ U.S. Census Bureau - Definitions of NECTAs
5. ^ U.S. Census Bureau - Population of NECTAs
6. ^ Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development - Service Delivery Areas
7. ^ U.S. Census Bureau - Definitions of MSAs
8. ^ U.S. Census Bureau - Poopulation of MSAs (2005 estimates)

• Gold Coast (Connecticut) for the contiguous urbanized area centered on the city of Stamford
• Lower Naugatuck River Valley which is part of the Bridgeport Labor Market Area

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