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

Table 1. Geographic and Demographic Coverage, Old and New StandardsNumber Share of National Population Share ofOLD STANDARDS of Counties Land Area in 2000 National PopulationMetropolitan 848 20% 226,207,070 80.4%Non-metropolitan 2293 80% 55,214,836 19.6%NEW STANDARDSMetropolitan 1089 25.3% 232,579,940 82.6%Micropolitan 690 20.3% 29,412,298 10.5%Non-core-based 1362 54.4% 19,429,668 6.9%Source: Census 2000 and OMBmore common, Metropolitan Divisionsare less practical geographic units fornationwide analyses. The highermetro-wide population threshold toestablish Metropolitan Divisions (atleast 2.5 million) versus that to establishPMSAs (at least 1 million) meansthat the new system contains 29 MetropolitanDivisions within 11 MetroSAs,compared to 73 PMSAs within18 CMSAs under the old system. Still,Metropolitan Divisions provideincreased flexibility for local analyses.In some metropolitan areas, then,users are able to choose among a metropolitanhierarchy that includes allthree types of areas: CSAs, MetroSAs,and Metropolitan Divisions.B. New micropolitan areas, togetherwith their metropolitan area counterparts,increase the reach of OMB’sstatistical areas to encompass 93percent of U.S. population and 46percent of its land area.The micropolitan statistical area(designated in this paper as MicroSA)is perhaps the most innovative conceptcreated with the new standards. OMBdeveloped MicroSAs in response toarguments that smaller communitieslocated outside of metro areasdeserved recognition as self-containedsettlements. They are defined in a parallelmanner to MetroSAs in that theyare core-based, meaning they consistof one or more counties centered on acontiguous urban area. MicroSAs andMetroSAs differ primarily in the populationof their core areas: between10,000 and 50,000 for MicroSAs, andat least 50,000 for MetroSAs. SomeMicroSAs have larger populationsthan the smallest MetroSAs, but areclassified as the former because theircore urban areas have less than50,000 people. MicroSAs range in sizefrom about 13,000 (Andrews, TX) toover 180,000 (Torrington, CT), andMetroSAs range in size from just over50,000 (Carson City, NV) to 18.3 million(New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA).The new standards define 573MicroSAs in addition to the 361 MetroSAs.The 573 MicroSAs incorporate690 counties, indicating that themajority of these areas include justone county. Because of the way theywere defined, OMB refers to bothtypes of areas as core-based statisticalareas (CBSAs). Together, thesecore-based areas cover a much largershare of the nation’s population andlandmass than metropolitan areasalone under the old standards. Thecombined MetroSAs and MicroSAsnow comprise 93 percent of U.S. populationand 46 percent of its land area.In comparison, the old metropolitanareas comprised 80 percent of thenation’s population and just 20 percentof its land area (Table 1).For analysts used to distinguishingbetween metropolitan and nonmetropolitanpopulations, MicroSAs belongto the latter category. However, theyrepresent only part of the nation’snonmetropolitan territory. The remainingportion of nonmetropolitan landassumes the somewhat cumbersometerm, “non-core-based areas.” BecauseMicroSAs comprise 60 percent of thetotal non-metropolitan population, it isnow less appropriate to think of thenonmetropolian population as wholly“rural.”Researchers from the CensusBureau and other federal agencies willincorporate the new micropolitan areaconcept into a range of national statistics,opening up a whole new field ofstudy for demographers, planners, andpolicy makers. The location and profileof MicroSAs is quite varied. Table2 shows that states housing the largestnumber of MicroSAs are not thenation’s largest states, but are heavilyconcentrated in the Midwest andSouth, and comprise a larger share ofoverall population there. Texas, Ohio,North Carolina, Indiana, and Georgialead all other states in the number ofmicropolitan areas, whereas the highlyurbanized states of Massachusetts,Rhode Island and New Jersey do nothave any. Small states with numerouscounties like Iowa, Nebraska, andSouth Dakota each have moreMicroSAs than California.Recent analyses by Lang (2004) andNovember 2004 • The Brookings InstitutionThe Living Cities Census Series7