The New York metropolitan area, broadly referred to as the Tri-State area and often also called the Greater New York City Area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass, encompassing 4,669.0 sq mi (12,093 km2). The New York metropolitan area is one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world and the only U.S. metropolitan area larger than twenty million residents as of the 2020 United States census. The vast metropolitan area includes New York City, the nation's most populous city, Long Island, the Mid- and Lower Hudson Valley in the State of New York; fourteen counties and eleven of the largest cities in New Jersey; and six of the seven largest cities in Connecticut. The phrase "Tri-State area" usually refers to New York / New Jersey / Connecticut, although an increasing number of people who work in New York City commute from Pennsylvania, particularly from the Lehigh Valley, Bucks County, and Poconos regions in eastern Pennsylvania, making the metropolitan area span four states. The New York metropolitan area is the geographic and demographic hub of the larger Northeast megalopolis.

A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metropolitan area usually comprises multiple principal cities, jurisdictions and municipalities: neighborhoods, townships, boroughs, cities, towns, exurbs, suburbs, counties, districts and even states and nations in areas like the eurodistricts. As social, economic and political institutions have changed, metropolitan areas have become key economic and political regions.