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The United States federal government defines and delineates the nation's metropolitan areas for statistical purposes, using a set of standard statistical area definitions. As of 2013, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defined and delineated 388 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) and 541 micropolitan statistical areas (μSAs) in the United States and Puerto Rico. Many of these 929 MSAs and μSAs are, in turn, components of larger combined statistical areas (CSAs) consisting of adjacent MSAs and μSAs that are linked by commuting ties; as of 2013, 524 metropolitan and micropolitan areas are components of the 169 defined CSAs.
Metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas are defined as consisting of one or more adjacent counties or county equivalents with at least one urban core area meeting relevant population thresholds, plus adjacent territory that has a high degree of social and economic integration with the core, as measured by commuting ties. A metropolitan statistical area has at least one urban core with a population of at least 50,000. In a micropolitan statistical area, the largest urban core has a population of at least 10,000 but less than 50,000.
Types and distribution
The sortable table below shows the number of metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas in each of the U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. For each jurisdiction, it lists:
- Total number of delineated areas wholly or partially in the named jurisdiction
- The number of primary statistical areas (i.e., CSAs plus any MSAs and µSAs that are not included in a CSA) wholly or partially in the jurisdiction
- The number of CSAs wholly or partially in the jurisdiction
- The number of core-based statistical areas (i.e., MSAs and µSAs) wholly or partially in the jurisdiction
- The number of MSAs wholly or partially in the jurisdiction
- The number of µSAs wholly or partially in the jurisdiction
- The number of counties and county-equivalents in the jurisdiction
Please note: Because many metropolitan and micropolitan areas overlap jurisdictional boundaries, columns are not additive.