Residents of the area also refer to it as DFW (the code for Dallas Fort Worth International Airport) or the Metroplex.

The metropolitan region's economy, also referred to as Silicon Prairie, is primarily based on banking, commerce, insurance, telecommunications, technology, energy, healthcare, medical research, transportation, manufacturing, and logistics.

[18][19] A portmanteau of metropolis and complex, the term metroplex is credited to Harve Chapman, an executive vice president with Dallas-based Tracy-Locke, one of three advertising agencies that worked with the North Texas Commission (NTC) on strategies to market the region.

[20] The NTC copyrighted the term "Southwest Metroplex" in 1972 as a replacement for the previously-ubiquitous "North Texas",[21] which studies had shown lacked identifiability outside the state.

The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex is situated in the Texas blackland prairies region,[24] so named for its fertile black soil found especially in the rural areas of Collin, Dallas, Ellis, Hunt, Kaufman, and Rockwall counties.

Continuing land use change results in scattered crop fields surrounded by residential or commercial development.

The all-time record high is 113 °F (45 °C), set on June 26 and 27, 1980 during the Heat Wave of 1980 at nearby Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

The following are cities and towns categorized based on the latest population estimates from the North Central Texas Council of Governments (as of July 1, 2022).

[51] The median household income in Dallas–Fort Worth was higher than the state average in 2017, and its unemployment (3.6%) and poverty rate was lower.

The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex's religious population are predominantly Christian and the largest metro area that identify with the religion in the United States (78%).

Non-Christian faiths including Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and contemporary paganism collectively form a little over 4% of the religious population.

Most other incorporated cities in the Metroplex are "bedroom communities" serving largely as residential and small-business centers, though there are several key employers in these regions.

It is nominally between the two major east–west interstates in the region (I-20, passing to the south of both downtowns, and I-30, connecting Dallas and Fort Worth city centers).

From late 2018 to early 2019, both McKesson and Charles Schwab announced they would be relocating from San Francisco to the DFW area.

DFW recently surpassed Chicago to become the second-largest financial services hub in the nation, eclipsed only by New York.

[57] Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Liberty Mutual, Goldman Sachs, State Farm, Charles Schwab Corporation, and Fidelity Investments maintain significant operations in the area.

This area has a large number of corporate IT projects and the presence of numerous electronics, computing and telecommunication firms such as Microsoft, Texas Instruments, HP Enterprise Services, Dell Services, Samsung, Nokia, Cisco, Fujitsu, i2, Frontier, Alcatel, Ericsson, CA, Google, T-Mobile US, and Verizon.

On the other side of the Metroplex, the Texas farming and ranching industry is based in Fort Worth, though the area's economy is diverse.

[61] Several major defense manufacturers, including Lockheed Martin, Bell Helicopter Textron, and Raytheon, maintain significant operations in the Metroplex, primarily on the "Fort Worth side".

Major professional sports first came to the area in 1952, when the Dallas Texans competed in the National Football League for one season.

[65] In 1972, Major League Baseball's Washington Senators moved to Arlington to become the Texas Rangers,[66] named after the statewide law enforcement agency.

As the two cities' suburbs have grown together in recent years (and especially since the demise of the Dallas Times Herald in 1991), many sites sell both papers.

[79] Dallas–Fort Worth is the fifth-largest television market in the United States, behind only New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia.

At 17,207 acres (6,963 ha) of total land area, DFW is also the second-largest airport in the country and the sixth-largest in the world.

Recently having regained the title as the largest airline in the world in terms of both passengers transported and fleet size, American is a predominant leader in domestic routes and operations.

The Blue Line reaches from Rowlett in the northeast to the University of North Texas at Dallas campus near I-20 in the south.

The 28-mile Green Line, which opened in December 2010, connects Carrollton in the northwest through downtown Dallas to Pleasant Grove in the southeast.

The A-train, a diesel commuter rail line, parallels I-35E to connect Denton, Highland Village, Lewisville, and Carrollton.

Several smaller towns along this line, Corinth, Shady Shores, and Lake Dallas, voted to abstain from DCTA and do not have stations.

It additionally operates TEXRail commuter rail, which serves to connect downtown Fort Worth with DFW Airport and the DART Orange Line.