Technical Term "Waterloo-Cedar Falls" (Des Moines, West Des Moines: chapel, live in, rated)

[metro223]

As far as I know, the actual name of the MSA for Waterloo is "Waterloo-Cedar Falls"

... but wouldn't this be incorrect? Because I thought in order for a city to be in the actual "name" it had to have 50,000 or more people.. Didn't West Des Moines have to reach 50,000 before it became the "Des Moines-W. Des Moines" MSA? I don't know of any other cities like this besides Wloo where the secondary city is less than 50k.

Random, I know, does anybody have an answer?

[mfrerkes]

Originally Posted by beemer1010

As far as I know, the actual name of the MSA for Waterloo is "Waterloo-Cedar Falls"

... but wouldn't this be incorrect? Because I thought in order for a city to be in the actual "name" it had to have 50,000 or more people.. Didn't West Des Moines have to reach 50,000 before it became the "Des Moines-W. Des Moines" MSA? I don't know of any other cities like this besides Wloo where the secondary city is less than 50k.

Random, I know, does anybody have an answer?

Let's use Scranton-Wilkes-Barre-Hazleton, PA MSA as an example.

Neither Wilkes-Barre (it's one city) or Hazleton has 50,000 people (Scranton does), yet the MSA contains the name of both cities.

Then there's the Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux MSA in Louisiana. None of those cities has 50,000 people.

MSA names aren't based on population, but rather the dominant cities within an MSA's area that qualify it as such.

But, I'm just an ignorant fool Beemer...so what do I know?

[metro223]

I see you edited that post because you forgot an "i" in LouIsIana, maybe you should just delete it because i didn't appreciate it. i'd rather no one reply than you start some argument over here now.

[mfrerkes]

Just trying to spread the word about MSA nomenclature criteria. It is very circuitous, as the city of Chapel Hill, North Carolina found out when the government wanted to split Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill into two separate MSAs and then omit Chapel Hill's name altogether:

http://townhall.townofchapelhill.org...ange-FINAL.htm

[wallststud]

I believe there is Waterloo and there is Cedar Falls. I think the name Waterloo-Cedar Falls is not official. It is just a way to connect the two cities. As far as I know, Waterloo and Cedar Falls did not merge. I could be wrong though i don't think that i am.

[mfrerkes]

I believe the question is not whether Waterloo and Cedar Falls merged, but rather why does Cedar Falls name appear in the MSA when it has less than 50,000 residents. As I explained above, the naming criteria for an MSA does not have a set population benchmark when multiple larger cities are involved.

[metro223]

lol ya i didnt think they merged

[Chicago60614]

I was going to start listing the others, but there are literally DOZENS of metros that have a city with less than 50,000 attached to the name.

The rule is a main city has to have at least 50,000 before it can be called a Metropolitan Area. Other cities are included based on other factors dealing with population and employment.

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

How is the Waterloo-Ceder Falls area doing these days? It has been 20 years since I was there. I lived in Evansdale. Is that part of your MSA? Not even sure what an MSA is. Where I live in California the city is close to 200,000. The city next to us has just over 100,000 people. The two cities are seperated by a river. (River bottom anyway as its dry most of the year.)

I have to say that I loved the time I spent in that area. Hoping to get back in a couple years to visit.

[Chicago60614]

Waterloo hasn't done much the past 20 years.