ORGANIZATION OF THIS REPORT

In the chapters that follow, we first look at the national trends in terms of population and workforce growth, the change in household structure, and outline some regional and state trends. Chapter 3 examines the demographics of the changes in relation to travel, focusing on the trends within the 49 metropolitan areas (not including San Juan, Puerto Rico) that have over 1,000,000 people in residence as reported in the 2000 Census. Chapter 4 examines the changes in place of work, residence location, and travel time. Chapter 5 looks at means of transportation and Chapter 6 looks at vehicle availability. The profile section includes a map of each of the 49 MSAs followed by a detailed profile sheet.

The terms "metro area," "metropolitan area" (MA), and "metropolitan statistical area" (MSA) are used interchangeably in this report. Exhibit A shows the long names of the metro areas, and the corresponding short names used in the report.

The United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defines metropolitan areas (MAs) according to published standards that are applied to Census Bureau data. MAs in this report are based on application of 1990 standards (which appeared in the Federal Register on March 30, 1990) to 1990 decennial census data and to subsequent Census Bureau population estimates and special census data. This report uses the June 30, 1999 definition of MAs (new definitions were published by OMB on June 3, 2003, but are not used in this report).

The general concept of an MA is that of a core area containing a large population nucleus, together with adjacent communities having a high degree of economic and social integration with that core. The basic building block used in the 1999 definition is a county (except for the New England States where cities and towns are used as the buiding blocks). The core is usually a county/counties containing a city of population greater than 50,000 people OR a Census defined urbanized area. Outlying counties are added to the MA based on population density and commute behavior. Because the geographic grain size used in defining MSAs is large, it causes some difficulty in interpreting trends.

To analyze trends using a consistent geographic definition, all the data presented in this report use the June 1999 geographic definition of MSAs. Data for previous decades were obtained at the county level and aggregated to the June 1999 definition of MSAs. Therefore, the numbers presented in this report may not be the same as the numbers published in the previous versions of the report.

A metropolitan area is called a Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area (CMSA) if it meets requirements of an MSA, has a population of 1 million or more, if the component areas are recognized as primary metropolitan statistical areas (PMSA), and if local opinion favors the designation. For example, the Washington, D.C. CMSA incorporates the Washington, D.C. PMSA, Baltimore, MD PMSA, and Hagerstown, MD PMSA.

Note: All data are sorted in the decreasing order of 2000 Population of MSA