The Burlington metropolitan area is a

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban area, urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories which share Industry (economics), industries, commercial areas, Transport infrastructure, transport network ...

consisting of the three Vermont counties of Chittenden, Franklin, and Grand Isle. The metro area is anchored by the principal cities of Burlington, South Burlington, St. Albans, Winooski, and Essex Junction; and the towns of

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

and Milton. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the metro area had a population of 225,562, approximately one third of Vermont's total population; in 2023, the estimated population was 227,942. The

Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). The office's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, while it also examines agency pro ...

defines the area as one of its metropolitan statistical areas (the Burlington–South Burlington metropolitan statistical area), a designation used for statistical purposes by the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

and other agencies. The MSA designation represents the counties containing the contiguous urbanized area centered on the city of Burlington, plus adjacent counties that are socially and economically linked to the urban core (as measured by commuting). An alternative definition using

towns A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

instead of counties as basic units was the Burlington–South Burlington New England City and Town Area (NECTA). Tabulating census data by NECTA definitions was discontinued when the OMB updated the statistical area definitions effective July 2023. The Burlington–South Burlington–Barre, VT combined statistical area adds Washington County (defined as the Barre, VT micropolitan statistical area) and the MSA, with a 2023 estimated population of 288,084.

Counties

List of counties making up the MSA: * Chittenden * Franklin * Grand Isle

Towns and cities

List of towns/cities making up the NECTA: *

Bakersfield Bakersfield is a city in and the county seat of Kern County, California, United States. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, which is located in the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's population as of the ...

Bolton Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and vill ...

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

* Burlington (Principal city) *

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

* Charlotte *

Duxbury Duxbury (alternative older spelling: "Duxborough") is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. A suburb located on the South Shore (Massachusetts), South Shore approximately to the southeast of Boston, the population was 16,090 ...

* Hinesburg * Huntington * Fairfax * Fairfield * Ferrisburgh * Fletcher *

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

* Grand Isle *

Jericho Jericho ( ; , ) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and the capital of the Jericho Governorate. Jericho is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It had a population of 20,907 in 2017. F ...

* Milton *

Monkton Monkton may refer to: Places ;United Kingdom *Monkton, Devon, England *Monkton, Kent, England *Monkton, Pembroke, Wales *Monkton, South Ayrshire, Scotland *Monkton, Tyne and Wear, England *Monkton, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales ;Canada *Monkton, Ontari ...

* North Hero * Richmond * St. Albans (city) * St. Albans (town) *

St. George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the ...

* Shelburne * South Burlington (Principal city) * South Hero * Starksboro * Swanton * Underhill * Vergennes * Westford * Williston * Winooski

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 198,889 people, 75,978 households, and 49,311 families residing within the MSA. The racial makeup of the MSA was 95.43%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.74%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.58% Native American, 1.53% Asian, 0.02%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 0.30% from other races, and 1.40% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 0.94% of the population.

Economy

The metro had a

gross metropolitan product Gross metropolitan product (GMP) is a monetary measure that calculates the total economic output of a statistical metropolitan unit during a specific time period. It represents the market value of all final goods and services produced within the u ...

of $8.38 billion in 2004, 38.2% of the total for the state. Personal income was $7 billion.

Personal income

The median income for a household in the MSA was $44,122, and the median income for a family was $51,690. Males had a median income of $35,363 versus $26,070 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the MSA was $21,175. The median wage in the area in 2008 was $16.47 hourly or $34,258 annually. This was 7.6% higher than in the rest of the state.

Industry

The largest industrial facility in Vermont is

GlobalFoundries GlobalFoundries Inc. is a multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company located in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Malta, New York. Created by the divestiture of the manufacturing arm of AMD in March 2009, the ...

's semiconductor plant in Essex Junction.

took over the plant in June 2015, after

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

ceased operations at the plant. As of 2008, GE Healthcare employed 780 people in Burlington. Companies headquartered in the metro area include: * Dealer.com, headquartered in Burlington *

Burton Snowboards Burton Snowboards is a privately-owned snowboard manufacturing company that was founded by Jake Burton Carpenter in 1977. The company specializes in products aimed at snowboarders, such as snowboards, bindings, boots, outerwear, and accessor ...

, headquartered in Burlington *Lake Champlain Chocolates, headquartered in Burlington * Seventh Generation, Inc., headquartered in Burlington * Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc., headquartered in South Burlington * Vermont Student Assistance Corporation, headquartered in Winooski * MyWebGrocer, headquartered in Winooski * Hack Club, headquartered in Shelburne, Vermont *Pet Food Warehouse Vermont, headquartered in South Burlington Hospitals include University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington and

and Northwestern Medical Center in St. Albans.

Volunteers

The metropolitan area ranked ten points higher than the US average, helping to propel the state to ninth in the country for volunteerism for the period 2005–8. 37.4% of the population volunteered during this period. The national average was 26.4%. The local average annual number of hours was 40.8.

Public health and safety

One study ranked the area fourth highest in gun safety, out of 100.

Media

There are four network-affiliated television stations in the city. They include WFFF channel 44 ( Fox), its sister station, WVNY channel 22 ( ABC), WPTZ channel 5

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

, and WCAX channel 3 ( CBS). WCAX, WFFF, and WPTZ operate news departments. WCAX is the only Burlington-based news department, while WPTZ is licensed in

Plattsburgh, New York Plattsburgh is a city in and the county seat of Clinton County, New York, United States, situated on the north-western shore of Lake Champlain. The population was 19,841 at the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. The population of the sur ...

yet operates out of South Burlington. WFFF and WVNY are also based in Colchester. Vermont PBS is based in Colchester.

The CW The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...

affiliate WNNE channel 31 is based out of Montpelier but serves the Burlington market. Comcast Communications is the city's major

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

service provider. Residents within the city limits are also served by municipally owned Burlington Telecom. These public access channels are Burlington based:

Public-access television Public-access television (sometimes called community-access television) is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is Narrowcasting, narrowcast through cable tele ...

VCAM-Channel 15, RETN-Channel 16, and Channel 17. Newspapers published in the Burlington metropolitan area include: * '' Burlington Free Press'' -

Burlington, Vermont Burlington, officially the City of Burlington, is the List of municipalities in Vermont, most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the county seat, seat of Chittenden County, Vermont, Chittenden County. It is located south of the Can ...

* '' St. Albans Messenger'' - St. Albans, Vermont *'' Franklin County Courier'' - Enosburg Falls, Vermont * ''The Islander'' - North Hero, Vermont * '' Milton Independent'' - Milton, Vermont * ''The Other Paper'' -

South Burlington, Vermont South Burlington is a city in Chittenden County, Vermont, United States. Along with neighboring Burlington, it is a principal city of the Burlington metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 20,292, making it the sec ...

*'' Seven Days'' -

* ''Shelburne News'' - Shelburne, Vermont * ''Williston Observer'' - Williston, Vermont

References

{{Burlington, Vermont Chittenden County, Vermont Franklin County, Vermont Grand Isle County, Vermont