Tracking metropolitan America into the 21st century - Population ...

IntroductionThe term “metropolitan area” isone of the few statisticalterms that is also familiar incommon conversation. A metropolitanarea is not a political jurisdictionwith a mayor or policedepartment, but rather an economicallyand socially linked collection oflarge and small communities. Residingin a metropolitan area provides identificationwith a well understoodbroader community, often elicitingcivic pride promoted by local chambersof commerce and economicdevelopment commissions. Regionalnewspapers, sports teams and culturalinstitutions all serve to reify the existenceof the metropolitan area. Moreover,the metropolitan designation ofan area confers on it something of anurbane or cosmopolitan status, placingit in a league with other areas as a recognizedeconomic region.Such commonly-held perceptions ofmetropolitan areas are reflected in rigorousstatistical definitions of the metropolitanconcept, developed by thefederal government’s Office of Managementand Budget (OMB). Federalagencies such as the U.S. CensusBureau use these standards to collectand disseminate area-based statisticsin publications such as the UnitedStates Statistical Abstract. They areincorporated into federal and statepolicies to allocate public resources tolocal areas. They are also used widelyin the private sector and the researchcommunity to identify consumer markets,labor markets, and housing markets.And OMB-defined metropolitanareas are often ranked in the popularpress and publications such as thePlaces Rated Almanac.The federal government definedmetropolitan statistical areas as earlyas the late 1940s, 1 and has updatedthem several times, primarily to takeinto account shifts in demographictrends and modest changes in nomenclature.2 However, in the early 1990sFigure 1. Old versus New TerminologyOLDConsolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area (CMSA)Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area (PMSA)Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)Central CityNew England County Metropolitan Area (NECMA)NEWMetropolitan Statistical Area (MetroSA)Micropolitan Statistical Area (MicroSA)Combined Statistical Area (CSA)Metropolitan DivisionPrincipal CityNew England City and Town Area (NECTA)Source: OMBOMB initiated a decade-long effort toreassess the metropolitan classificationsystem, in light of the manychanges in U.S. settlement patternsthat had taken place over the previous50 years. 3The original metropolitan statisticalarea concept was predicated on themodel of a large central city of over50,000 residents that served as a hubof social and economic activity for surroundingcounties. Together, the cityand counties formed a stand-alonemetropolitan area. Over the past fivedecades, however, the decentralizationof both employment and population inmany urban areas have served to dispersethe “core” well beyond thelargest city into smaller clusters of previously“suburban” communities. Asmetropolitan populations expanded, itbecame evident that hierarchies wereforming within metropolitan areas.Large metropolitan areas developedsomewhat self-contained sub-areas(e.g., Newark or Long Island withinthe greater New York region); andexisting, neighboring metropolitanareas became, for some purposes, partof a larger super-region (e.g., Washington,D.C. and Baltimore). It alsobecame apparent that many communities,considered too small to be part ofa metropolitan area, should nonethelessbe recognized as part of the settlementsystem, rather than be omittedcompletely.After a series of commissioned studies,convenings with user communities,and interagency meetings, OMB’swide-ranging effort in the 1990sresulted in the adoption of the newstandards for metropolitan andmicropolitan areas. OMB has urged allfederal agencies that collect and publishdata for these areas to use themost recent definitions.The changes are quite significant,not only in terminology, but also in thegeographic sweep of classified areas,(Figure 1). Figure 2 displays the metropolitanor nonmetropolitan status ofU.S. counties according to the old andnew standards. Under the old system,only 20 percent of the country’s territorywas defined. The new standardsdouble the coverage, classifying 46percent of U.S. land area. Micropolitanareas—a new classification—account for most of the increasedcoverage and fill in a noticeable portionof the “empty” space across thecountry.Given these significant changes,2November 2004 • The Brookings InstitutionThe Living Cities Census Series