Megalopolis and the Bay Area

In 1961, the French geographer Jean Gottmann coined the term megalopolis to describe the densely populated urban corridor of the northeastern United States. The cities of San Francisco and San Jose in the Bay Area can be considered a megalopolis. These two urban areas combined are the 55th largest urban areas in the world, second in California, and first in Northern California. Similar to megalopolis, these are two relatively small, but very densely populated cities with huge economies. In fact, San Francisco is the second most densely populated city after New York. San Jose has the biggest economy in California and is the technological hub of the United Sates. San Jose and San Francisco have the second largest fortune 500 companies to the megalopolis of New York. These cities also held the number one rank in 2009 for households with $1 million assets, New York being second. If New York is the megalopolis of the East Coast, the Bay Area is the megalopolis of the West coast.