New Statistical Area Designations based on Census 2000

On June 6, 2003, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced an initial update to statistical area definitions based on new standards and the results of the 2000 Census. This was superseded on February 18, 2004, by a re-issuance of the initial bulletin that reflected, among other things, a re-application of the standards using population estimates for 2001 and 2002.

Relative to the prior decade, the updated list adds 49 new Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) while revising definitions of existing MSAs, and also identifies for the first time 578 Micropolitan Statistical Areas. Additionally, OMB designated and defined two new sets of statistical areas--125 Combined Statistical Areas and 29 Metropolitan Divisions in the most populous metropolitan areas. New England City and Town Areas (NECTAs) also are defined as an alternative to the county-based metropolitan and micropolitan areas in the 6 New England states. As part of this redefinition, Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) codes for the pre-existing areas have been revised.

The Office of Management and Budget is responsible for maintaining and updating statistical area classifications, a task it has done every decade since the 1950 Census. OMB establishes and maintains the definitions of these areas solely for statistical purposes. This classification is intended to provide nationally consistent definitions for collecting, tabulating, and publishing federal statistics for a set of geographic areas.

Within the Bureau of Labor Statistics, information on the publication plans of employment and unemployment programs that produce data for statistical areas is shown below.

New definitions:

• OMB Bulletin 04-03

Comparison of geographic coverage between the 2000 and 1990 definitions:

• United States: Maps of 2000 Metropolitan and Micropolitan Areas vs. 1990 Metropolitan Areas (HTML) (PDF 550K)
• New England: Maps of 2000 Metropolitan and Micropolitan NECTAs vs. 1990 Metropolitan Areas (HTML) (PDF 126K)
• States: Maps of 1990 Metropolitan Areas (PDF 2.4MB)
• States: Maps of 2000 Metropolitan and Micropolitan Areas (PDF 2.7MB)

Census Bureau links to information about Metropolitan Areas:

• Background 
• Current Definitions and FIPS Codes
• Historical Metropolitan Area Definitions
• Federal Register Notice--Final Standards (PDF 295K)
• Census 2000 Urban and Rural Classification

BLS links to data on Metropolitan Areas:

• Metropolitan Area Implementation Plans for the Fed-State Programs
• Proposed changes to State and local area labor force estimates in 2005
• BLS programs by geography
• BLS Publications of Metropolitan Area data
  • Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment
  • Metropolitan Area Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates
  • Geographic Profile of Employment and Unemployment: 2002
  • Wages from the National Compensation Survey: Published Areas
  • Labor Market Areas, 2003 (PDF 1MB)

Last Modified Date: August 31, 2004

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