Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968. The consolidation gave Jacksonville its great size and placed most of its metropolitan population within the city limits. It is the most populous city proper in Florida and the eleventh most populous in the United States. Jacksonville is the principal city in the Greater Jacksonville Metropolitan Area.