Core Based Statistical Areas, 1960-2000

Todd K. Gardner, U.S. Census Bureau

Core Based Statistical Areas based on the Office of Management and Budget's new "Standards for Defining Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas" as applied to Census 2000 data will be announced in the summer of 2003. These standards bring a number of key changes: the criteria for defining Metropolitan Statistical Areas are more straightforward; a new class of statistical area, the Micropolitan Statistical Area, will be defined for urban cores with populations between 10,000 and 50,000; and counties rather than cities and towns are components of New England Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas. The streamlined standards and availability of data from 1960, 1970, 1980 and 1990 facilitate analysis of growth patterns using consistent criteria over a 40-year span. This study will apply the new standards to data from the last five censuses to examine population trends using comparable areas. Micropolitan Statistical Area definitions present a challenge because urban clusters were not defined prior to 2000, so places (incorporated places and census designated places) will be used in this study. Finally, this study will examine how the portrayal of the metropolitan landscape would be altered by using variations of the rules for combining areas.