Maryland is located in the mid-atlantic region of the United States. It is comparable in size to the European country of Belgium. The states' capital, Annapolis is another metro hub. The Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area is a consolidated metropolitan area consisting of the overlapping labor market region of the cities of Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland. The region includes Central Maryland, Northern Virginia, and two counties in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. It is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the United States.