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Appendix A. Comparing Metropolitan Area Definitions from 1990 to 1999

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. For more information on the June 30, 1999 definition for MSA geography, please refer to the Census Bureau website at:http://www.census.gov/population/www/estimates/metroarea.cfml

The tables in this section provide a list of counties for each of the 49 largest MSAs for both the 1990, and June 1999 definitions. Because of definitional differences, the list does not include MSA definitions for New York, Boston, Providence, and Hartford. A list of geographies for these MSAs can be found at www.census.gov/population/estimates/metro-city/99mfips.txt.