In the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language, a metropolitan area refers to a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area.^[1] Such regions are not legally incorporated as a city or town would be, nor are they legal administrative divisions Administrative divisions are divisions of a political division. In other words, they are designated portions of a country. They are also called subnational entities. They are each granted a certain degree of autonomy, and are required to manage themselves through their own local governments. Countries are divided up into these smaller units to like counties A county is a land area of local government within a country. A county may have cities and towns within its area. Originally, in continental Europe, a county was the land under the jurisdiction of a count (conte, comte, conde, Graf) or states A U.S. state is any one of 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of commonwealth rather than state. State citizenship is. As such the precise definition of any given metropolitan area A metropolitan area is a large population center consisting of a large metropolis and its adjacent zone of influence, or of more than one closely adjoining neighboring central cities and their zone of influence. One or more large cities may serve as its hub or hubs, and the metropolitan area is normally named after either the largest or most can vary with the source. A typical metropolitan area is centered around a single large city that wields substantial influence over the region (e.g. Chicagoland The Chicago metropolitan area, or Chicagoland, is the metropolitan area associated with the city of Chicago in the United States and its suburbs. It is the area that is closely linked to the city through social, economic, and cultural ties. There are several definitions of the area, the two most common being the area under the jurisdiction of the). However, some metropolitan areas contain more than one large city with no single municipality holding a dominant position (e.g. Minneapolis – Saint Paul).

Some U.S. government agencies publish definitions of metropolitan areas for accounting and tracking purposes. The most widely used are those published by the Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget is a Cabinet-level office, and is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). These are used by the U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data. As part of the United States Department of Commerce, the Census Bureau serves as a leading source of data about America's people and economy for its demographics statistics as well as many other agencies.

Definitions

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget is a Cabinet-level office, and is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP) (OMB) defines a set of core based statistical areas A Core Based Statistical Area is the official term for a functional region based around an urban center of at least 10,000 people, based on standards published by the Office of Management and Budget in 2000. Areas defined on the basis of these standards applied with Census 2000 data were announced by OMB in June 2003. These standards are used to (CBSAs) throughout the country. CBSAs are delineated on the basis of a central urban area or urban cluster—a contiguous area of relatively high population density. The counties containing the core urban area are known as the central counties of the CBSA. Additional surrounding counties (known as outlying counties) can be included in the CBSA if these counties have strong social and economic ties to the central counties as measured by commuting and employment. Outlying counties are included in the CBSA if the employment interchange measure (total of in commuting and out commuting) is 25% or more. Note that some areas within these outlying counties may actually be rural in nature. CBSAs are subdivided into metropolitan statistical areas In the United States, a metropolitan area refers to a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are not legally incorporated as a city or town would be, nor are they legal administrative divisions like counties or states. As such the precise definition of any (MSAs) and micropolitan statistical areas United States Micropolitan Statistical Areas , as defined by the Census Bureau and the Office of Management and Budget, are urban areas in the United States based around a core city or town with a population of 10,000 to 49,999. The micropolitan area designation was created in 2003. Like the better-known metropolitan area, a micropolitan area is a based on the population of the core urban area. Under certain conditions, one or more CBSAs may be grouped together to form a larger statistical entity known as a combined statistical area The United States Office of Management and Budget defines micropolitan and metropolitan statistical areas. Metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas consist of one or more counties (or county-equivalents). Currently defined metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas are based on application of the 2000 standards (which appeared in the (CSA). Other names, such as Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area and Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area, have been used in the past but are now discontinued.^[2] CBSAs are composed of counties and county-equivalents The second class of county-equivalents is unique to Alaska. Most of the land area of that state has no organized county-level government. The Alaska state government calls the entire portion of the state that is not part of a borough the Unorganized Borough. In 1970, the Census Bureau, in cooperation with the state, divided the Unorganized Borough.^[3] In New England In one of the earliest European settlements in the New World, Pilgrims from the Kingdom of England first settled in New England in 1620, in the colony of Plymouth. Ten years later, the Puritans settled north of Plymouth Colony in Boston, thus forming Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. In the late 18th century, the New England colonies would be, because of the greater importance of towns The New England town is the basic unit of local government in each of the six New England states. An institution that does not have a direct counterpart in most other U.S. states, New England towns are conceptually similar to civil townships in that they were originally set up so that all territory would be completely covered by them. However, New over counties, similar areas are defined based on town units, known as New England City and Town Areas A New England City and Town Area or NECTA is a geographic and statistical entity defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, for use in describing aspects of the New England region of the United States. A NECTA is a region associated with a core urban area with a population of at least 10,000, plus adjacent territory that has a high (NECTAs). U.S. census statistics for metropolitan areas are reported based on these definitions.

Definition issues

MSAs are used for official accounting purposes, but they are not the only estimates of metropolitan area populations available. The appropriate boundaries - and therefore population figures - for some metro areas are much debated, and in some cases reputable sources provide figures which differ by millions. The most contentious examples include the Greater Los Angeles Area The Greater Los Angeles Area, or the Southland,[citation needed] is the agglomeration of urbanized area around the county of Los Angeles, California, United States. Greater Los Angeles includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area,[citation needed] the Inland Empire,[citation needed] and the Oxnard–Thousand Oaks–Ventura area.[citation needed] San, the San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, also commonly known as the Bay Area, is a metropolitan region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses large cities such as San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas. Overall, the Bay Area consists of nine counties, 101, and Greater Cleveland Greater Cleveland is a nickname for the metropolitan area surrounding Cleveland, Ohio. However, some of these boundaries are addressed by CSAs. The official definitions used for the last U.S. Census differed from those for previous censuses, making comparisons difficult even between official figures at different dates (comparing 2000 with 1990, Baltimore was separated from Washington, D.C., but West Palm Beach was combined with Miami-Fort Lauderdale, which made a considerable difference to the rankings of both metros). Care should also be taken when comparing MSA figures with population figures for cities or metro areas outside the U.S., which may be based on substantially different boundary systems and definitions of terms. Additionally, United States MSA boundaries do not stretch into neighboring countries such as Canada The land occupied by Canada was inhabited for millennia by various groups of Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored, and later settled, along the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three or Mexico In Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory, which was administered as the viceroyalty of New Spain which would eventually become Mexico, so border cities such as Detroit Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded on July 24, 1701, by the Frenchman Antoine de la, Buffalo Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, behind New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada, Buffalo is the principal city of the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area and the seat of Erie County. The city, El Paso El Paso stands on the Rio Grande , across the border from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico. The image to the right shows Downtown El Paso and Juárez, with the Juárez Mountains in the background. The two cities form a combined international metropolitan area, sometimes called Juarez-El Paso, with Juárez being the significantly larger of the two and San Diego San Diego , named after Saint Didacus (Spanish: Diego de Alcalá), is the eighth largest city in the United States, second-largest city in California and 46th largest city in the Americas. Located along the Pacific Ocean on the west coast of the United States, San Diego has a population of 1,359,132 (Jan 2010). The city is also the county seat of would count only U.S. population figures.

As of June 2003, there is now an additional classification, that of a “Metropolitan Division.” The term metropolitan division is used to refer to a county or group of closely-tied contiguous counties that serve as a distinct employment region within a metropolitan statistical area that has a population core of at least 2.5 million. While a metropolitan division is a subdivision of a larger metropolitan statistical area, it often functions as a distinct social, economic, and cultural area within the larger region.

See also

• Geography
  • Human geography
    • Demography
• United States
  • United States Census Bureau
  • Office of Management and Budget
    • Combined statistical area
    • Core Based Statistical Area
      • Metropolitan Statistical Area
      • Micropolitan Statistical Area
    • Demographics of the United States
    • Table of United States Combined Statistical Areas (CSA)
    • Table of United States Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSA)
      • Table of United States Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA)
      • Table of United States Micropolitan Statistical Areas (µSA)
    • Table of United States primary census statistical areas (PCSA)
• List of metropolitan areas by population
• List of regions of the United States
• List of United States cities by population
• List of metropolitan areas in the Americas by population
• List of the largest urban areas of the European Union by population
• Megacity
• World's largest cities

References

1. ^ U.S. Census Bureau Glossary
2. ^ "Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas". U.S. Census Bureau. http://www.census.gov/population/www/metroareas/metroarea.html. Retrieved 16 Feb 2010.
3. ^ Census Geographic Glossary, U.S. Census Bureau

External links

• US Census Bureau Population Estimates
• Table 1. Annual Estimates of the Population of Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2005
• U.S. Census 2000 Metropolitan Area Rankings; ranked by population
• U.S. Census 2000 Metropolitan Area Rankings
• Definitions of all Metropolitan Statistical Areas, Metropolitan Divisions
• U.S. Census Metropolitan Area Estimates (1990s)
• U.S. Census Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Area Definitions

Categories: Demographics of the United States | Metropolitan areas of the United States | United States Census Bureau geography

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