Office of Management and Budget (OMB) was urged by various sources in the last decade to delineate the entire land surface of the country into areas, and not leave the territory outside of metro areas as an undifferentiated residual. As a partial response, OMB designated micro areas using the same procedure as that for metro areas. Any nonmetro county with an urban cluster of at least 10,000 persons or more becomes the central county of a micro area. As with metro areas, outlying counties are included if commuting to the central county is 25 percent or higher, or if 25 percent of the employment in the outlying county is made up of commuters from the central county. Because they are county-based and include outlying areas, the total area population reaches well beyond 50,000 for many micro areas. The inaugural set of 560 micro areas includes 674 counties and ranges in size from 13,000 (Andrews, Texas) to 182,000 (Torrington, Connecticut).

Micro areas contain just under 60 percent of the nonmetro population, with an average of 43,000 people per county. In contrast, the 1,378 "noncore" counties, with no urban cluster of 10,000 or more residents, average just 14,000 people. In general, lack of an urban core and low overall population density may place these counties at a disadvantage in efforts to expand and diversify their economic base. However, the population in noncore counties grew by 7.9 percent during the 1990s, compared with a growth rate of 9.9 percent in micro areas and 14 percent in metro areas.

OMB's new designation of micro areas is an important step in recognizing nonmetro diversity. It provides a framework for better understanding population growth and economic restructuring in small towns and cities that up to now have received less attention than metro areas. Micro areas embody a widely-shared residential preference for a small-town lifestyle—the ideal compromise between large urban and completely rural settings. As information about these places makes its way into government data and publications alongside metro areas in the coming years, micro areas will draw increased attention from policymakers and the business community.

For more infomation, see Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas on the U.S. Census Bureau's website. Definitions, maps, and lists of the new and old statistical areas are provided.

Download an Excel file with a list of the current metropolitan and micropolitan areas by county.

for more information, contact: John Cromartie
web administration: webadmin@ers.usda.gov
page updated: August 22, 2003