If you listen to Uncle Sam, you could drive from Washington, DC, to Jefferson County in West Virginia (about half-way to Ohio) and still be in Greater Washington…but if you drive 15 minutes from the District’s edge to Anne Arundel County, you’d be off the map.

At GWI, we take a different — and we think a more sensible — approach to defining Greater Washington. And we’d like to thank mystery reader Brett Anders for prompting a discussion of the region’s boundaries in this John Kelly column in Sunday’s Washington Post.

So when GWI talks about our region having the nation’s highest median household incomes or nation’s most educated workforce, we’re using our definition of the region, not Uncle Sam’s.

If you’re an out-of-towner or (like me) your geographic markers include highways, parks, and restaurants but not county lines, here’s our official map of Greater Washington.

Filed under: GWI In the News