Minneapolis–Saint Paul is a major metropolitan area built around the confluence of 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 state's most populous city, and its neighbor to the east, Saint Paul, the capital. Minnesotans often refer to the two together as "the Cities." It is the third-largest metropolitan area in the Midwest and the 16th-largest metropolitan statistical area in the U.S.