The Columbia metropolitan area is the region centered around the City of Columbia in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

. Located in

Mid-Missouri Mid-Missouri is a loosely-defined region comprising the central area of the U.S. state of Missouri. The region's largest city is Columbia, Missouri, Columbia (population 121,717); the Missouri state capital, Jefferson City, Missouri, Jefferson C ...

, it consists of five counties: Boone, Audrain, Randolph, Cooper, and

Howard Howard is a masculine given name derived from the English surname Howard. ''The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names'' notes that "the use of this surname as a christian name is quite recent and there seems to be no particular reason for ...

. The population was estimated at 256,640 in 2017, making it the 4th largest metropolitan area in Missouri. Columbia is home to the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

, and is Missouri's fourth most-populous and fastest growing city, with an estimated 121,717 residents as of 2017. Other significant cities in the area include Moberly,

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, Boonville, Vandalia, Centralia, and Fayette. There is also a 9-county Columbia–

Jefferson City Jefferson City, informally Jeff City, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Missouri. It had a population of 43,228 at the 2020 United States census, ranking as the List of cities in Missouri, 16th most popu ...

– Moberly combined statistical area with 415,747 residents. The area was originally called the Boonslick and settled mainly by Kentuckians following the

Boone's Lick Road The Boone's Lick Road or Boonslick Trail was an early 1800s transportation route from eastern to central Missouri in the United States. Running east–west on the north side and roughly parallel to the Missouri River the trail began in the river ...

starting around 1812. The town of Franklin, now washed into the

Missouri River The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

, was an early commercial center and start of the

Santa Fe Trail The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, the ...

. Columbia was founded as

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

of Boone County in 1821. The region was considered for the location of the

Missouri State Capitol The Missouri State Capitol is the home of the Missouri General Assembly and the Executive (government), executive branch of government of the U.S. state of Missouri. Located in Jefferson City, Missouri, Jefferson City at 201 West Capitol Avenue, ...

, but eventually a site was chosen south of Columbia and

was created to serve that purpose. Today,

Interstate 70 Interstate 70 (I-70) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from Interstate 15, I-15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to Interstate 695 (Maryland), I-695 and Maryland Route 570 (MD 570) in Woodlawn, Baltimo ...

, and U.S. Highways 63, 54, 24, and 40 link the urban areas. The U.S. Census defines the Columbia MSA as Boone, Cooper, and Howard counties while the addition of the Jefferson City MSA along with Audrain and Randolph form the combined statistical area.

Counties

Current

* Boone (central county) * Audrain * Randolph * Cooper *

Incorporated places

Cities with greater than 100,000 inhabitants

* Columbia (principal city), 123,195

Cities with greater than 10,000 inhabitants

* Moberly, 13,974 *

, 11,543

Towns with greater than 1,000 inhabitants

* Boonville, 7,964 * Ashland, 4,747 * Centralia, 4,136 * Vandalia (partial), 3,899 (~1,000 are inmates at a local prison) * Fayette, 2,695 * Huntsville, 1,564 * Hallsville, 1,614 *

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, 1,087

Towns with greater than 100 inhabitants

Sturgeon Sturgeon (from Old English ultimately from Proto-Indo-European language, Proto-Indo-European *''str̥(Hx)yón''-) is the common name for the 27 species of fish belonging to the family Acipenseridae. The earliest sturgeon fossils date to the ...

, 872 * Higbee, 568 * Laddonia, 513 * Farber, 322 * Martinsburg, 304 * Clark, 298 *

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, 292 *

Harrisburg Harrisburg ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat, seat of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Dauphin County. With a population of 50, ...

, 266 * Rocheport, 239 * Renick, 172 * Rush Hill, 151 *

Jacksonville Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

, 151 * Clifton Hill, 114 * Benton City, 104 * Hartsburg, 103

Villages

* Vandiver, 77 * Pierpont, 76 * Huntsdale, 31 * McBaine, 10

Unincorporated places

* Shaw * Thompson * Two Mile Prairie * Midway

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 145,666 people, 56,930 households, and 34,010 families residing within the MSA. The racial makeup of the MSA was 85.83%

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 ...

, 8.42%

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 ...

, 0.41% Native American, 2.76% Asian, 0.03%

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 ...

, 0.67% from other races, and 1.87% 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 1.72% of the population. The median income for a household in the MSA was $34,550, and the median income for a family was $45,689. Males had a median income of $29,837 versus $22,970 for females. The per capita income for the MSA was $17,521.

References

{{authority control Metropolitan areas of Missouri