The Census Bureau defines the Fargo Metropolitan Area as comprising all of Cass County, North Dakota and Clay County, Minnesota. The metropolitan area has an area of 7,278 km˛ (2,810 mi˛), and its population, according to the 2000 census, is 174,367. A 2006 estimate revealed that the population has climbed to around 200,000, due to extremely rapid growth of the southern end of the city. The city's largest suburb of West Fargo has nearly doubled in the last six years and this trend is expected to continue. The growth of the city has boosted the local economy and set the area apart from national trends such as rates of home foreclosure and declining home sales.
The Red River of the North in Fargo-Moorhead, as viewed from the Fargo side of the river
Fargo/Wahpeton CSA
The Census Bureau also tracks a Fargo-Wahpeton Combined Statistical Area, consisting of Cass and Clay counties, as well as Richland County, North Dakota and Wilkin County, Minnesota. This area includes the twin cities of Wahpeton, North Dakota and Breckenridge, Minnesota. The Fargo-Moorhead urban core is actually about an hour's worth of highway travel from the Wahpeton-Breckenridge core. The main connection between these two pairs of cities is the Red River Valley, the flat, fertile land that both depend upon for a major part of their economies. Potatoes are an important crop in the region, in addition to most of the other crops produced elsewhere in Minnesota and North Dakota.
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