Metropolitan Area Designations by OMB: History, 2010 Standards, and Uses

Jennifer D. Williams
Specialist in American National Government

On June 28, 2010, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced its uniform criteria, or “standards,” for delineating metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas in the decade 2010 to 2020. Together, these areas are known informally as “metropolitan areas” and officially as “core-based statistical areas” (CBSAs); “core” refers to a large population concentration that is socially and economically integrated with surrounding territory. Also announced were the standards for delineating New England city and town areas (NECTAs), which are conceptually similar to CBSAs. The 2010 standards supersede those for designating metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas in the decade 2000 to 2010. The terms “core-based statistical area” and “micropolitan” first were used in the 2000 standards. The current standards have changed only slightly from the previous decade’s. Changes include reference to “delineating,” instead of “defining,” CBSAs and NECTAs; a lower threshold for the automatic combination of two CBSAs; and no further provision for local opinion to influence whether some areas will combine or what titles combined areas will receive.

CBSAs consist of whole counties and county-equivalents in the United States and Puerto Rico. Each CBSA must contain at least one urbanized area of 50,000 or more people (for a metropolitan statistical area) or at least one urban cluster of 10,000 to 49,999 people (for a micropolitan statistical area). CBSAs have one or more principal cities and central counties. Outlying counties are included in CBSAs on the basis of employment and commuting data. Counties that do not qualify for inclusion in CBSAs are classified as “outside core-based statistical areas.” The criteria for designating NECTAs closely resemble the CBSA criteria, and NECTAs are either metropolitan or micropolitan, but they are based on cities and towns rather than counties.

OMB is scheduled to issue, in 2013, the actual lists of CBSAs—the titles of the areas, with their principal city and county components. NECTAs and their components will be listed, too. The lists will be derived by applying the OMB standards to population data from the 2010 census, conducted by Bureau of the Census (part of the U.S. Department of Commerce), as well as employment and commuting data from the Bureau’s American Community Survey estimates for 2006 through 2010. After 2013, updated data will be used for any changes in the lists.

In principle, metropolitan area delineations are to be used solely for descriptive, statistical purposes. In practice, however, they can have a use unintended by OMB, in formulas for allocating certain federal grant program funds. For this reason, among others, CBSAs can attract congressional attention because they can be important to congressional constituents.

No straightforward procedure exists for calculating the exact amount of money distributed through all federal grant programs whose funding formulas incorporate metropolitan area designations, or for determining how changes in these designations might affect the total funding allocated to a specific jurisdiction. Even identifying comprehensively which programs use metropolitan area designations would require reviewing the statutes, regulations, and formulas associated with all programs. If such identification were feasible, it would be only the beginning of any attempt to determine whether inclusion in, or exclusion from, a particular metropolitan area or its components translates directly into an increase or decrease in the money a particular jurisdiction might receive from all federal grant programs whose funding formulas rely on these designations. The question then would have to be addressed program by program and posed to department or agency program staff.


Date of Report: September 15, 2011
Number of Pages: 15
Order Number: R42005
Price: $29.95

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