The Tampa Bay Area, also known as the Bay Area, Bay Area, FL (in constrast to the San Francisco Bay Area), or simply Tampa Bay after the body of water it surrounds, is the second most populated metropolitan region in the state of Florida, and the 19th-largest metro area in the United States. It is defined by the Office of Management and Budget for census purposes as the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population for the Tampa Bay Area currently stands at 2,697,731, as of a July 1, 2006 estimate. http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/cb07-51tbl2.pdf The Tampa Bay Partnership and U.S. Census data showed an average annual growth of 2.47 percent, or a gain of approximately 97,000 residents per year. Between 2000 and 2006, the combined Tampa Bay and Sarasota region (comprising eight counties) experienced a combined growth rate of 14.8 percent, growing from 3.4 million to 3.9 million and hitting the 4 million mark on April 1, 2007 in the continuous Tampa Bay urban area. Tampa Bay metro market hits milestone - Tampa Bay Business Journal:
