Bangor is the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States, and the major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine. For statistical purposes, it is the principal city of the Bangor Maine New England County Metropolitan Area which encompasses Bangor, all of Penobscot County and part of Waldo County, Maine.As of 2008, Bangor is the third-largest city in Maine, as it has been for more than a century. The population of the city was 31,473 at the 2000 census. The population of the Bangor Metropolitan Statistical Area was over 140,000.Bangor is approximately 30 miles from Penobscot Bay up the Penobscot River at its confluence with the Kenduskeag Stream.