City and Town Area (NECTA) Because New England's local governance model is organized around the smaller New England town unit, and has weak or non-existent county governments, the US Census Bureau organizes its urban regions in the New England around clusters of towns known as New England city and town areas (NECTAs) rather than around county borders as it does in the rest of the country. The set of towns containing the core urbanized area, along with surrounding towns with strong social and economic ties to the core area, is defined as the Boston–Cambridge–Nashua, MA–NH Metropolitan NECTA. The Boston NECTA region is further subdivided into several NECTA divisions, which are listed below. The Boston, Framingham, and Peabody NECTA divisions together correspond roughly to the MAPC area. The total population of the Boston NECTA was 4,540,941 (). Boston–Cambridge–Newton, MA NECTA Division (92 towns) Framingham, MA NECTA Division (12 towns) Peabody–Salem–Beverly, MA NECTA Division (4 towns) Brockton–Bridgewater–Easton, MA NECTA Division (Old Colony region) (8 towns) Haverhill–Newburyport–Amesbury, MA–NH NECTA Division (Merrimack Valley region) (21 towns) Lawrence–Methuen–Salem, MA–NH NECTA Division (part of Merrimack Valley region) (4 towns) Lowell–Billerica–Chelmsford, MA–NH NECTA Division (Northern Middlesex region) (15 towns) Nashua, NH–MA NECTA Division (21 towns) Taunton–Middleborough–Norton, MA NECTA Division (part of Southeastern region) (9 towns) Lynn–Saugus–Marblehead, MA NECTA Division (5 towns) Portland-South Portland-Biddeford, ME NECTA Division (61 towns) Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) An alternative definition defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget, using counties as building blocks instead of towns, is the Boston–Cambridge–Newton, MA–NH Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is further subdivided into three metropolitan divisions. The metropolitan statistical area had a total population of 4,941,632 as of the 2020 census and is the tenth-largest in the United States. The components of the metropolitan area are listed below. Boston–Cambridge–Newton, MA–NH Metropolitan Statistical Area Boston, MA Metropolitan Division Norfolk County, Massachusetts Plymouth County, Massachusetts Suffolk County, Massachusetts Cambridge–Newton–Framingham, MA Metropolitan Division Essex County, Massachusetts Middlesex County, Massachusetts Rockingham County–Strafford County, NH Metropolitan Division Rockingham County, New Hampshire Strafford County, New Hampshire Combined Statistical Area (CSA) A wider functional metropolitan area based on commuting patterns is also defined by the Office of Management and Budget as the Boston–Worcester–Providence combined statistical area. This area consists of the metropolitan areas of Manchester, Worcester, Providence, as well as Cape Cod, in addition to greater Boston. The total population for the extended region was estimated at 8,466,186 at the 2020 census.