WASHINGTON – “America’s metropolitan areas are not part of our national economy; rather, they are the national economy,” the Brookings Institute contends in a new report entitled “MetroNation: How U.S. Metropolitan Areas Fuel American Prosperity.”

One hundred metropolitan areas accounted for 68.1 percent of all U.S. jobs in 2005, the study found, based on an analysis of figures from the U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis. Those same 100 regions accounted for 75.0 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, though they housed only 65.1 percent of the population.

The Providence-New Bedford-Fall River metropolitan area ranked 38th nationwide for total employment with 746,487 jobs, and had a regional GDP of $59.41 billion. It ranked 56th for population, with 1.62 million residents.

The Boston-Cambridge-Quincy metro region ranked 8th nationwide for jobs and 16th for population, and had a GDP of $261.09 billion; the Worcester metro area ranked 73rd for jobs and 90th for population, and had a GDP of $25.55 billion.

In Connecticut, the Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford region ranked 42nd nationally for employment and 68th for population, and had a GDP of $67.04 billion; Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk ranked 55th for jobs and 79th for population, and had a GDP of $72.72 billion; nearby New Haven-Milford ranked 60th for jobs and 84th for population, and had a GDP of $34.29 billion.

“Our major cities and suburbs are highly interconnected units that not only gather critical drivers of our national prosperity – innovation, human capital and infrastructure – but strengthen them through the forces of agglomeration,” writes author Alan Berube, research director for the Brookings Institute’s Metropolitan Policy Program and a former policy adviser to the U.S. Treasury Department.

“They possess our most globally competitive firms, our most educated workers and the hubs that connect Americans to one other and to the rest of the world.

“The success of these major metros and that of the nation’s smaller cities, towns and rural areas are closely linked.” he continues. “Whether our nation achieves true prosperity, then, in the form of productive, inclusive and sustainable growth, depends on whether our metropolitan economies grow and remain prosperous.”

“We are a Metro Nation,” Berube later states. “Policies that promote productive, inclusive and sustainable metropolitan growth thus provide a critical basis for achieving our national priorities.”

The “MetroNation” report – the first from the MPP’s new Blueprint for American Prosperity initiative – will be followed early next year by “Unleashing America’s Metropolitan Potential,” an in-depth analysis of metropolitan performance, federal policy and “the structure and promise of a new federal-metro partnership … designed to unleash metropolitan innovation, adaptation and prosperity,” the Brookings Institute said.

The Brookings Institute – founded in 1916, as the Institute for Government – is a nonprofit public policy organization whose accomplishments include helping shape the Marshall Plan after World War II. Today, the institute has more than 200 resident and nonresident fellows. Additional information, including the full “MetroNation” report, is available at www.brookings.edu.