Why is Greene County excluded from Pittsburgh Metro Area? (New Castle: incomes, bus)

[Love2Golf09]

I've seen many references to the 7 county Pittsburgh Metro Area and Greene County is almost always excluded. Why is this? I know that Greene County is very rural, but so is Armstrong. Also, I believe neither Fayette nor Armstrong actually border Allegheny County, correct? I'm just trying to figure out the reason for excluding the place. They have Pittsburgh news there and a 724 area code, right? It just seems odd to be left out.

File:Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area and Pittsburgh-New Castle CSA.png - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[BrianTH]

The OMB defines metropolitan areas based on commuting patterns. See here:

http://www.census.gov/population/metro/about/

So Greene not being included basically means not enough people are commuting from there into the core counties.

[HeavenWood]

In addition, believe the Pittsburgh "urban area" spills into those other counties, but ends before reaching Greene. Keep in mind, the Census Bureau has a rather loose definition of "urban:"

"The U.S. Census Bureau defines an urban area as: "Core census block groups or blocks that have a population density of at least 1,000 people per square mile (386 per square kilometer) and surrounding census blocks that have an overall density of at least 500 people per square mile (193 per square kilometer)."

[Hopes]

If you hadn't posted a map, I would have had no idea where Green county was located.

[Lobick]

Originally Posted by Hopes

If you hadn't posted a map, I would have had no idea where Green county was located.

I wonder if you do now?

The map is a little misleading, at least it was to me at first blush. You'd think the county in yellow (Lawrence) is the one that is the topic of discussion and not the non-colored one in the southwest corner of the state (Greene). The link explains the coloring, but I was confused at first. Admittedly, my knowledge of PA counties is largely lacking.

Pennsylvania County Map - PA Counties - Map of Pennsylvania

[Geeo]

Lawrence County (the yellow one) is a micropolitan area (New Castle) that has now joined the Pittsburgh MSA to become the Pittsburgh-New Castle MSA (or CMSA), I forget which is which. Lots of Lawrence County residents now work inthe Pittsburgh area, especially the airport and Cranberry area. There is daily bus service to downtown Pittsburgh, and the completion of I-376 to I-80 makes it an easy drive.

[Gnutella]

To clarify, Greene County is the southwesternmost county in Pennsylvania. It's a very poor, rural county. It's the most sparsely-populated county in southwestern Pennsylvania, with just over half the population of Armstrong County, the second-most sparsely-populated county, and it's the only county in southwestern Pennsylvania with fewer than 50,000 people. Only Forest County has a lower per capita income in the entire state, and only Cambria, Fayette, Forest, Indiana and Sullivan Counties have lower median household incomes. Waynesburg, the county seat of Greene County, is 23 miles from Washington's central business district, but also 23 miles from the central business district of Morgantown, WV. It's 52 miles from downtown Pittsburgh.