States where the capital, largest city, and metro area are different? (cities, population)

[Vision-Quest]

I can't believe nobody has said Kansas!!!!!!!

Capital- Topeka
Largest City- Wichita
Largest Metro- Kansas City

So Obvious!!!!!!!!!!

[Vision-Quest]

And Kentucky

Capital- Frankfort
Largest City- I believe its Lexington
Largest Metro- Louisville

[ogre]

Originally Posted by Vision-Quest

I can't believe nobody has said Kansas!!!!!!!

Capital- Topeka
Largest City- Wichita
Largest Metro- Kansas City

So Obvious!!!!!!!!!!

This one is tricky, since the principal city of the K.C. metro area is Kansas City, MO, so the largest metro area of which any part is in Kansas does not lie entirely in KS, and is not centered on a city in KS. There are other situations like this, such as Virginia. Richmond is the capital, and Virginia Beach is the largest city. Just as in Kansas, where Wichita is the largest city, and the principal city of the largest metro area located entirely within the state, but the state does contain part of a larger metro centred outside the state, VA Beach is also the largest city of the largest metro located entirely within Virginia--Hampton Roads--but part of the larger D.C. metro is also in VA.

[ogre]

Originally Posted by Bydand

Actually the Bangor and Lewiston area would be included in the MICROpolitan classification and not the METRO classification because they main population center is smaller than 50,000. Bangor is around 35,000 and Lewiston is just a little larger. Portland may fit the description of a metropolitan area because it's population is over 50,000 and it is tied to South Portland very closely. I doubt anybody though would include it on a list of Metro areas if they had to name them. Anyplace that is smaller than 100,000 I doubt would really be considered a "metropolitan" area.

Classification of metropolitan areas gets tricky. In fact, the Census Bureau does categorize the Bangor and Lewiston-Auburn areas as metropolitan areas. The key fact there is that a single city of at least 50k is not necessarily required for a local area to be classified as metropolitan. What you need is an unbroken densely populated urban core area of at least 50k, but this can be made up of several adjacent cities, all of which are smaller than 50k, but which add up to a total population of at least 50k. Probably the most obvious example of this in Maine is the Lewiston-Auburn area. Lewiston and Auburn each have populations under 50k, but together their total population is close to 60k. This is an especially good example of the idea of an urban core, as opposed to a single city, since Lewiston and Auburn are right next to each other, with only the river separating them, and run together, so that they appear physically to be all one city.

Another area that gets tricky happens when you doubt that the population of a metro area is as large as the officially listed population, as in the fact that it is questionable to consider the more distant parts of York County, or even Cuberland County, true suburbs of Portland. It happens that the Census Bureau has their reasons for using counties as the components of metropolitan areas, and the fact that they do means that many metro areas will officially include outlying areas that are not truly suburbs of the city in question, but are still included in the metro area population because they are part of a county that is included.

Since Portland is located in New England, it also has a New England City-Town Area, which gives you a much better approximation of the local population of the city and its true suburbs, since it uses individual cities and towns as the area's components. For Portland, this population is approx. 333k. If that still seems large, well, maybe so, but that figure is based on the percentage of the population of each city and town that commutes to work in Portland, so apparently this is an accurate figure, even if it might seem large.

You might feel subjectively as if the vicinity of Portland is too small to seem like a metro area, and I've never read any of the history about why the Census Bureau set 50k as the minumum core population for an area to qualify as metropolitan. Certainly it's true that a small metro, like Portland, has a completely different feel about it than a larger metro. Maybe this is one reason that the Census Bureau has become increasingly sophisticated in its classification of metro areas in recent years. Such categories as Consolidated Statistical Areas and Metropolitan Divisions seem to indicate an attempt to use objective criteria to capture the difference in feel and complexity between large and very small metros.

http://www.census.gov/population/www.../metrodef.html (links to metro, micro, and New England City-Town Area components are at the bottom of the page)

http://www.census.gov/population/www...t29/index.html (shows populations of metros, micros, CSA's, and NECTA's as of '03)

[ogre]

Another one with a twist to it is New Hampshire:

Capital: Concord

Largest city: Manchester

Largest metro area: Part of the Boston metro area is located in NH. The quirky twist is that until recently NH was an example of a state with the capital, largest city, and largest metro all being different, and all being located within the same state. Several years ago, the Portsmouth metro area was absorbed into the Boston metro. Prior to that, Portsmouth's metro area had been the largest in NH, despite the fact that Manchester has five times the population of Portsmouth when it comes to the cities proper.

Another state with a twist on this theme is New Jersey. The capital is Trenton, and the largest city is Newark, yet Newark does not have its own metro area, as it's part of the NYC metro.

[Akhenaton06]

Virginia has probably already been mentioned (haven't read through the entire thread), but the capital is Richmond, the largest city is Virginia Beach, and the largest metro area is NoVA.

[Billiam]

Originally Posted by Akhenaton06

Virginia has probably already been mentioned (haven't read through the entire thread), but the capital is Richmond, the largest city is Virginia Beach, and the largest metro area is NoVA.

NoVA isn't a metro, DC is. Nova's just a part of the DC metro

Originally Posted by Vision-Quest

And Kentucky

Capital- Frankfort
Largest City- I believe its Lexington
Largest Metro- Louisville

Kentucky's largest city and Metro are both Louisville

[Spade]

Originally Posted by Billiam

Maryland :

Capital: Annapolis
Largest city: Baltimore
Largest Metro: DC

You can do the same for VA.
Capital: Richmond
Largest City : Virginia Beach
Largest Metro: DC

[Billiam]

yep

[mrl8500]

Connecticut

Largest city: Bridgeport
Largest Metro: NYC(even though not entirely in state)
Largest metro entirely in the state is Hartford