The Northeast Megalopolis is the world’s largest megalopolis based on economic output. To the extent that if this region of the United States were a country, it would be the 3rd most wealthy. The megalopolis comprises of all or parts of 12 states plus the nation’s capital. All of New England is part of the Northeast Megalopolis, also known as the Northeast Corridor.
What is a megalopolis?
A megalopolis is a Greek term that means a continuous urban area or a collection of major urban areas. University of Paris professor and geographer, Jean Gottmann first coined the term “Northeast Megalopolis” to refer to the continuous urban population ranging from Boston down to Washington D.C. He explains the development and economic power of this region in his 1961 book Megalopolis: The Urbanized Northeastern Seaboard of the United States.
What is the Northeast Megalopolis?
The Northeast Megalopolis includes 12 states in partial or total plus Washington D.C. The twelve states are Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia.
This region together has a population of 58 million, almost 20% of the United States population. Collectively, the economic output of this region is third greatest in the world, after only China and then America as a whole.
The U.S. itself has 12 megaregions across the nation, but the Northeast remains the most “dominant” as the video above explains. The Northeast Megalopolis also produces about 20% of the country’s GDP on only 2% of America’s land. It has one of the highest economic outputs in the world, but this comes at a cost with work-life balance and cost of living.