What is considered "in" the "Triangle"? (Raleigh: chapel, house)

[jkmeca11]

Is it simply whatever falls between the imaginary lines drawn from Raleigh to Durham to Chapel Hill and Back to Raleigh again?

[jfre81]

The Triangle (North Carolina) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maybe that might clear some things up for you.

This article seems to include a lot of places that I wouldn't say feel much like part of the metro area, though.

[askmisterbrown]

The Triangle is the customary name for the metropolitan area anchored by Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. The Census Bureau formerly called it the Raleigh-Durham Metropolitan Statistical Area. Now it is divided into two MSAs: The Durham MSA includes Durham, Orange, Chatham and Person counties. The Raleigh-Cary MSA includes Wake, Johnston and Franklin counties. Note that Chapel Hill’s name does not appear, but Cary’s does. Cary is now larger than Chapel Hill. But the three points of the Triangle are still considered Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill.

But these MSAs have some arbitrariness to them. What truly constitutes a metropolitan area does not necessarily follow county borders. A metropolitan area includes the land of urban and suburban character anchored by its city or cities. At the edge of all metropolitan areas, there is a fuzzy area that is somewhat suburban and somewhat rural. When a majority of people in an area consider themselves closely connected to the metropolis, by their work, shopping, recreation, government, or other ties, then that place is part of the metropolitan area.

I would say the Triangle includes all of Wake, Durham, and Orange Counties, but only the eastern half of Chatham County. The western half is largely rural, or more closely connected with the Triad (Greensboro, Winston-Salem & High Point) or Burlington. The northwestern part of Johnston County is definitely in the Triangle, but Smithfield and Selma are still their own towns, not suburbs of the Triangle. And Princeton, in the east, is more attached to Goldsboro. The southwestern third of Franklin County is in the Triangle, but the northeastern third is rural. Most of Person County is also rural, and I don’t consider Roxboro a suburb of the Triangle.

I would consider the southern quarter of Granville County to be part of the Triangle, likewise the northern quarter of Harnett County.

When a new development is built on the edge of the metropolitan area, its residents who work in Raleigh or Durham or RTP may consider themselves residents of the Triangle, whereas the family in the old farm house down the road may think they live in the country!