Fargo-Moorhead

Fargo-Moorhead is a common name given to the metropolitan area comprising Fargo, North Dakota, Moorhead, Minnesota, and the surrounding communities. These two cities lie on the North Dakota-Minnesota border, on opposite banks of the Red River of the North. The larger Fargo-Moorhead area also encompasses the communities of West Fargo, North Dakota, Dilworth, Minnesota and numerous other towns and developments from which commuters travel daily for work, education and regular activities.

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 km² (2,810 mi²), 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.Fact|date=June 2008 This rapid growth has made the Fargo-Moorhead metropolitan area the largest between Minneapolis and Seattle.Fact|date=September 2008 The city's largest suburb of West Fargo has nearly doubled in the last 6 years and this trend is expected to continue. The growth of the city has greatly boosted the local economy and set the area apart from national trends such as high rates of home forclosure and declining home sales.

Core cities

*Fargo, North Dakota
*Moorhead, Minnesota
*West Fargo, North Dakota
*Dilworth, Minnesota

uburbs and adjacent towns

*Briarwood, North Dakota
*Frontier, North Dakota
*North River, North Dakota
*Prairie Rose, North Dakota
*Reile's Acres, North Dakota

Bedroom communities

*Casselton, North Dakota
*Barnesville, Minnesota
*Glyndon, Minnesota
*Hawley, Minnesota
*Sabin, Minnesota
*Harwood, North Dakota
*Horace, North Dakota
*Kindred, North Dakota
*Mapleton, North Dakota
*Oxbow, North Dakota

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.