Question: Saint Paul, Minnesota, is which of the largest metropolitan areas in the US? 
Context: Saint Paul, Minnesota contains many educational institutions.  A number of educational "firsts" have happened in Saint Paul.  Hamline University, the first and oldest college in Minnesota, was founded in Saint Paul in 1854.  In 1991 Minnesota became the first state in the United States to pass legislation allowing the existence of charter schools.  The following year, the first charter school in the nation, City Academy High School, was established in Saint Paul.  The oldest library in Minnesota, the Minnesota State Law Library, was opened in 1849. Saint Paul College - A Community and Technical College, is a two-year college located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States serving more than 11,000 students in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area.  Saint Paul College is part of the Minnesota State Colleges and University System (MnSCU).  The school offers associate degree programs, and certificate & diploma programs in areas such as; accounting, marketing, web design, culinary, carpentry, auto repair, business, fine arts, and nursing. Jim Meehan (born March 19 in Saint Paul, Minnesota), sometimes known as Minneapolis Jim Meehan, is an American professional poker player from Burnsville, Minnesota.  Prior to his poker career, Meehan worked as a lawyer for many years. The metropolitan area (Portuguese: "área metropolitana" ) is a type of administrative division in Portugal.  Since the 2013 local government reform, there are two metropolitan areas: Lisbon and Porto.  The metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto were created in 1991.  A law passed in 2003 supported the creation of more metropolitan areas, under the conditions that they consisted of at least nine municipalities ("concelho"s) and had at least 350,000 inhabitants.  Several metropolitan areas were created under this law (Algarve, Aveiro, Coimbra, Minho and Viseu), but a law passed in 2008 abolished these, converting them into intermunicipal communities, whose territories are (roughly) based on the NUTS III statistical regions. The climate of Minneapolis–Saint Paul is the long term weather trends and historical events of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area in east central Minnesota.  Minneapolis and St. Paul, together known as the Twin Cities, are the core of the 15th largest metropolitan area in the United States.  With a population of 3.6 million people, the region contains approximately 60% of the population of Minnesota.  Due to its location in the northern and central portion of the U.S., the Twin Cities has the coldest average temperature of any major metropolitan area in the nation.  Winters can be cold, summer is warm to hot and frequently humid, snowfall is common in the winter and thunderstorms with heavy rainfall occur during the spring, summer and autumn.  Though winter can be cold, the area receives more sunlight hours in mid-winter than many other warmer parts of the country, including all of the Great Lakes states, the Pacific Northwest, parts of the South, and almost all of the Northeast.  Unless otherwise indicated, all normals data presented below are based on data at Minneapolis/St.  Paul International Airport, the official Twin Cities climatology station, from the 1981−2010 normals period. West Saint Paul is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota, immediately south of Saint Paul, Minnesota, and immediately west of South Saint Paul, Minnesota.  The city's misleading name comes in part from the fact that it lies on the west bank of the predominantly north-to-south Mississippi River.  A previous City of West St. Paul, incorporated in the late 19th century, was situated in what is now called St. Paul's Lower West Side.  According to the West 7th/Fort Road foundation, St. Paul annexed the West Side, and was incorporated for two reasons: "to aid law enforcement—criminals could escape St. Paul authorities by crossing to the West Side and Dakota County—and to eliminate the Wabasha Street Bridge tolls which were inhibiting development on the West Side."  The current West St. Paul split from the western half of South St. Paul, and was incorporated in 1889, just south of the city of St. Paul.  The population was 19,540 at the 2010 census, growing by 135 since 2000.  West Saint Paul is known for its 2.5-mile retail strip along Robert Street. Saint Paul ( ; abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota.  As of 2016, the city's estimated population was 304,442.  Saint Paul is the county seat of Ramsey County, the smallest and most densely populated county in Minnesota.  The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city.  Known as the "Twin Cities", the two form the core of Minneapolis–Saint Paul, the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the United States, with about 3.52 million residents. Located on the Mississippi River, Memphis is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the Southeast, ranking 41st out of the top 75 according to a Department of Labor Release.  Of the 40 metropolitan areas ahead of Memphis, only 12 are in the South, according to the Census definition The city has historically been one of the largest shipping hubs in the Mid-South, dating back to the Civil War, when the port was one of the largest on the Mississippi River and served as a shipping hub for the Confederacy. Minneapolis–Saint Paul is a major metropolitan area built around the Mississippi, Minnesota and St. Croix rivers in east central Minnesota.  The area is commonly known as the Twin Cities after its two largest cities, Minneapolis, the city with the largest population in the state, and Saint Paul, the state capital.  It is an example of twin cities in the sense of geographical proximity.  Minnesotans living outside of Minneapolis and Saint Paul often refer to the two together (or the seven-county metro area collectively) as The Cities. This is a list of metropolitan areas in Northern America, typically defined to include Canada and the United States as well as Bermuda (UK), Greenland (Denmark), and St. Pierre and Miquelon (France).  Northern America is sometimes listed separate from Central America, the Caribbean, and Mexico due to cultural and economic differences between the two regions within North America and in fact most are considered part of Latin America.  This list only includes those metropolitan areas in Canada and the United States as the other territories in Northern America lack sufficient population to have a metropolitan area.  For Canada this list includes population of the metropolitan areas in the country as counted by both the 2001 and 2011 Canadian Censuses.  For the United States the data comes from both the 2000 and 2010 United States Censuses.  Using decennial census data from both countries allows for the opportunities to compare growth rates between metropolitan areas in both countries.  Due to slight differences in how a metropolitan area is defined by both the U.S. Census Bureau and Statistics Canada, only metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) used in the United States and census metropolitan areas (CMAs) used in Canada are included in the table, while micropolitan statistical areas (µSAs) and census agglomerations (CAs) are not, as they are not defined as metropolitan areas by their respective agencies.
Answer: 16th-largest