This article is about the Iowa-Illinois metropolitan area. For other uses of the term, see Quad Cities (disambiguation)

Davenport-Moline-
Rock Island, IA-IL

Common name: Quad Cities
Largest city Other cities	Davenport, Iowa  - Bettendorf, Iowa  - Moline, Illinois  -Rock Island, Illinois  -East Moline, Illinois
Population	Ranked 131st in the U.S.
- Total	377,291 (2006 est.)
- Density	296.15 /sq. mi.  114.37 /km²
Area	1,318 sq. mi. 3,413 km²
State(s)	- Iowa  - Illinois
Elevation
- Highest point	850 feet (259 m)
- Lowest point	590 feet (180 m)

The Quad Cities consists of five^[1][2][3]neighboring cities flanking the Mississippi River in Iowa and Illinois in the Midwestern United States. The July 1, 2006, population of the four-county metropolitan area is estimated at 377,291.^[4] The Quad Cities, in order of descending population, are:

• Davenport, Iowa
• Moline, Illinois
• Rock Island, Illinois
• Bettendorf, Iowa
• East Moline, Illinois

Before World War II, the area was known as the "Tri-Cities", and included only Davenport, Rock Island, and Moline. With the growth of Rock Island County, East Moline was eventually given "equal status" and the region became known as the "Quad Cities" during the early 1960s. By the 1970s, Bettendorf had grown such that many people in the community openly discussed the adoption of the name "Quint Cities". However, by this time, the name "Quad Cities" had become known well beyond the area, and Quint Cities never caught on. As Bettendorf passed East Moline in size it became one of the Quad Cities—a name that was now arguably something of a misnomer, as it includes five cities.

As a patchwork of co-located urban units situated at an outpost of the Rust Belt, the Quad Cities area serves as an interesting case study on the effects of various economic, social, political, and environmental variables on the trajectory of municipalities seeking economic recovery. Seen as a single urban mass, the Quad Cities perfectly exemplifies the multiple nuclei model of urban arrangement.