Seen through the railing of the Walnut Street Bridge, a woman takes a morning run downtown.In the Chattanooga metropolitan area, the city of Chattanooga is one of 28 cities and home to only about one of every four residents in the six-county metro area.
When people broadly refer to Chattanooga as their home, they are likely to work and shop in the city of Chattanooga but actually live in a suburban town in either Tennessee or Georgia. The U.S. Census Bureau says the work and shopping patterns are so integrated among those who live in the six-county area that the entire region is part of the same metropolitan statistical area. That includes Hamilton, Marion and Sequatchie counties in Tennessee and Catoosa, Dade and Walker counties in Georgia.
The population of metro Chattanooga in the 2010 census was 528,143, or 51,612 more residents than in the 2000 census.
The most number of incorporated cities in any of the area counties are in Hamilton and Marion counties in Tennessee. Hamilton County has 10 incorporated municipalities: Chattanooga, Collegedale, East Ridge, Lakesite, Lookout Mountain, Red Bank, Ridgeside, Signal Mountain, Soddy-Daisy and Walden. Marion County contains eight incorporated cities: Jasper, Kimball, New Hope, Orme, Powells Crossroads, South Pittsburg, Whitwell and part of Monteagle.