High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Dallas Fort Worth Arlington metropolitan area, a title designated by the U.S. Census as of 2003, encompasses 12 counties within the U.S. state of Texas. The metropolitan area is further divided into two metropolitan divisions: Dallas Plano Irving and Fort Worth Arlington. Residents of the area informally refer to it as the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, the acronym DFW, or simply The Metroplex (the term was originally invented to refer to Dallas/Fort Worth), which is the economic and cultural hub of the region commonly called North Texas or North Central Texas.