Metropolitan Cork is an unofficial term which refers to the city of Cork, Ireland, its suburbs, rural hinterland that surround it and many towns and villages in that hinterland. The term was used in the Cork Area Strategic Plan to refer to the area whose labour and property market is shared with the city. The plan declares that it is envisaged as an area with "an integrated transport system, and the social, cultural and educational facilities of a modern European city.". Metropolitan Cork is the core employment hub of the Greater Cork area.