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You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in Spanish. (January 2025)Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, likeDeepL orGoogle Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consideradding a topic to this template: there are already 1,095 articles in themain category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. Youmust providecopyright attribution in theedit summary accompanying your translation by providing aninterlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary isContent in this edit is translated from the existing Spanish Wikipedia article at [[:es:Áreas metropolitanas de Colombia]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template{{Translated|es|Áreas metropolitanas de Colombia}} to thetalk page. For more guidance, seeWikipedia:Translation.

Colombia has a number of metropolitan areas, each composed of anurban center and its associatedmunicipalities.^[1] Some of these are officially designated administrative andcensus areas, while most of them are not officially defined areas or administrative regions.

The following criteria must be met for a group of communities to be designated a metropolitan area:^{[citation needed]}

• Each one of the municipalities, the secondary cities as well as the central city, must have a population of at least 50,000 inhabitants.
• The secondary cities must integrate their city planning with that of the central city.
• At least two-thirds of those employed in the area must perform non-rural activities.
• Each of the secondary cities must have at least 10% of their workers employed in the central city.

Commuting to work is a major characteristic of a metropolitan area. As a result, the secondary cities are often called "dormitory cities"; meaning places where the inhabitants only go home to sleep.

An important function of the officially designated metropolitan areas is to provide for joint planning between the municipalities, thereby managing ordered and proportional economic growth according to the necessities of the area and the physical characteristics of each municipality.^{[citation needed]}

The following metropolitan areas are currently recognized by the Colombian government (as of 2007):^{[citation needed][clarification needed]}

• Se consolidan en el país las áreas metropolitanas, Portafolio, 15 June 2006 (archived)
• Sorpresas del censo^{[permanent dead link]}

• Metropolitan areas of Colombia
• Subdivisions of Colombia

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