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New England city and town area (
NECTA) is a geographic and statistical entity defined by the U.S. federal government for use in the six-state
New England region of the
United States. NECTAs are analogous to
metropolitan statistical areas and
micropolitan statistical areas and are defined using the same criteria, except that they are defined on the basis of
New England towns instead of entire
counties. NECTAs are classified as either metropolitan or micropolitan NECTAs. A micropolitan NECTA has an urban core with a population of at least 10,000 but less than 50,000, whereas a metropolitan NECTA has an urban core with a population of at least 50,000.