The northeast quadrant is locally referred to as "north of the river" (Missouri River) or "the Northland". (Often confused with Northtown, a nickname for North Kansas City) Contained wholly within Missouri, it encompasses portions of Clay County including the northern half of Kansas City, Missouri, and the cities of Liberty, and North Kansas City. The sharpest part of the river bend forms a peninsula containing the Kansas City Downtown Airport.

The southeast quadrant is the core of the metro area and includes the southern half of Kansas City, Missouri, and the Jackson County, Missouri, suburbs of Independence, Lee's Summit, Raytown, Grandview, and Blue Springs. It is sometimes called "the southland". It includes the majority of the metro area's businesses, visitor attractions, cultural institutions, and urban neighborhoods.

The southwest quadrant includes all of Johnson County, Kansas, which includes the towns in the area known as Shawnee Mission. Interstate 35 runs diagonally through Johnson County from the southwest to downtown Kansas City, Missouri.

The northwest quadrant contains Wyandotte County, Kansas, and parts of Platte County, Missouri. Wyandotte County, sometimes referred to as just 'Wyandotte' or 'The Dotte', which contains Kansas City, Kansas, Bonner Springs and Edwardsville, is governed by a single unified government similar to a consolidated city-county. Often the Wyandotte government is referred to simply as 'The Unified Government'. Another bend in the Missouri River forms the county line between Wyandotte and Platte counties to the north and northeast.

In all, nearly 2 million people live in the metropolitan area. It is difficult to state exactly the size of the population because there are no natural boundaries and suburban expansion (or sprawl) is ongoing.