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Old 09-11-2016, 04:11 PM
 
Location: South Beach and DT Raleigh
13,966 posts, read 24,005,425 times
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The following is a list of MSAs over 1 million, their corresponding UAs and the percentage of the MSA that is represented by the UA. These are listed in descending order from the highest percentage to the lowest percentage. A few of the MSAs have urban areas that exceed their MSAs because the UA actually consolidates or spills over into an adjacent MSA. For those instances, I have combined the population of the two MSAs (not the CSA) and compared that number with the UA. This is the case for San Francisco & San Jose per the data set. For Los Angeles, I am presuming that that its UA is spilling into the Riverside MSA since Riverside doesn't have an UA listed in the source and the Inland Empire is millions of people in size. For Las Vegas, I can't identify or presume a likely cause of the UA being larger than the MSA; it's just listed as having a UA larger than its MSA.

A caveat is that the MSAs are based on July, 2015 numbers while the UAs are based on a 2016 report. Sources linked below.

Format for the list is MSA by listed first city followed by MSA population followed by UA population followed by UA percentage of MSA.

Las Vegas 2,114,801 2,255,000 106.63%

UA = 90%+ of MSA
NYC 20,182,305 20,685,000 97.57%
Miami 6,012,331 5,820,000 96.80%
Chicago 9,551,031 9,185,000 96.17%
San Diego 3,299,521 3,110,000 94.26%
Boston 4,774,321 4,490,000 94.04%
Salt Lake City 1,170,266 1,100,000 94.00%
Phoenix 4,574,531 4,295,000 93.89%
Seattle 3,733,580 3,475,000 93.07%
Denver 2,814,339 2,600,000 92.38%
Philadelphia 6,069,875 5,595,000 92.18%
Houston 6,656,947 6,005,000 90.21%

UA = 80%-89.99% of MSA
Milwaukee 1,575,747 1,415,000 89.80%
San Francisco/San Jose 6,632,968 5,955,000 89.78%
Atlanta 5,710,795 5,120,000 89.65%
Tampa 2,975,225 2,660,000 89.41%
Orlando 2,387,138 2,125,000 89.02%
Raleigh 1,273,568 1,130,000 88.73%
Dallas 7,102,796 6,280,000 88.42%
Cleveland 2,060,810 1,785,000 86.62%
Detroit 4,302,043 3,660,000 85.08%
San Antonio 2,384,075 2,025,000 84.94%
Virginia Beach 1,724,876 1,465,000 84.93%
Los Angeles/Riverside 17,829,227 15,135,000 84.89%
Sacramento 2,274,194 1,920,000 84.43%
Austin 2,000,860 1,675,000 83.71%
Portland 2,389,228 2,000,000 83.71%
Indianapolis 1,988,817 1,645,000 82.71%
Memphis 1,344,127 1,110,000 82.58%
Baltimore 2,797,407 2,275,000 81.33%
DC 6,097,684 4,950,000 81.18%
Buffalo 1,135,230 920,000 81.04%
Richmond 1,271,334 1,030,000 81.02%
Louisville 1,278,413 1,035,000 80.96%
Jacksonville 1,449,481 1,170,000 80.72%

UA = 70%-79.99% of MSA
Hartford 1,211,324 965,000 79.66%
Minneapolis 3,524,583 2,795,000 79.30%
Cincinnati 2,157,719 1,695,000 78.56%
St Louis 2,811,588 2,195,000 78.07%
Kansas City 2,087,471 1,610,000 77.13%
Providence 1,613,070 1,205,000 74.70%
Columbus 2,021,632 1,505,000 74.44%
Pittsburgh 2,353,045 1,730,000 73.52%
New Orleans 1,262,888 925,000 73.24%

UA = 60%-69.99% of MSA
Birmingham 1,145,647 800,000 69.83%
Oklahoma City 1,358,432 930,000 68.46%
Rochester 1,081,954 735,000 67.93%
Charlotte 2,426,363 1,600,000 65.94%
Nashville 1,830,345 1,105,000 60.37%

UA = less than 60% of MSA
Grand Rapids 1,038,583 590,000 56.81%

Sources:
http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf

If I left any metros off other than the ones that I combined due to how the UA's are reported, please point out the omissions.

Last edited by Yac; 11-19-2020 at 04:16 AM..
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Old 09-12-2016, 06:49 AM
 
4,345 posts, read 2,730,575 times
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Surprised to see Houston in the 90% + crowd instead of in the 80s with its fellow Texans. Even more surprised that Austin is behind all the other major Texan cities.

Houston does some serious back filling. In a way DFW does too. The gap between Dallas and Fort Worth was quite evident in the 90s but not barely existent.

Also surprised at how close Houston and DFW UA populations are in comparison to their MSA. I think DFW will get much bigger in the coming decades and stretch into Tyler and beyond.
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Old 09-12-2016, 07:00 AM
 
Location: Washington D.C. By way of Texas
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No way Tyler is ever counted into Dallas MSA. That is 90 miles apart.
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Old 09-12-2016, 07:01 AM
 
Location: Katy,Texas
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The main reason is when you live Houston what else is there in the CSA, Their is Huntsville, Brenham and a few other towns that eventually add up to 500,000. The Houston CSA adds random counties that are all less than 100,000 to the CSA and the MSA also contains counties like Liberty, Waller and Chambers which while they are close to the urban boundary and deserve to be in the MSA they contain next to zero suburban areas. Dallas is the same situation with a bunch of small and useless counties added to the MSA when really their are only 5 counties that need to be there, Dallas,Denton, Tarrant, Collins and Rockwall.
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Old 09-12-2016, 08:27 AM
 
Location: Portland, Maine
504 posts, read 610,988 times
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Also I would assume for the Sunbelt cities that part of the reason is that the criteria to be included in the UA doesn't require density that is all that high because of that the remaining land in the MSA is even lower density. Although Boston's MSA is about half the area of many of the Sunbelt cities metros I will use it as an example because I am more familiar with it and it follows the same general trend.

Boston's UA covers 1,770 sq mi- population 4,490,000

Boston's MSA covers 4,500 sq mi- population 4,774,321

The additional 2,730 sq mi in the MSA only contains an additional 284,321 people that is a density of only 104 ppsm

Here are some images to contrast the UA with the areas only in the MSA

UA pictures moving from more to less urban


^ 15,000-40,000 ppsm


^7,000-30,000 ppsm


^1,000-1,500 ppsm

MSA Images


^~250 ppsm


^~325 ppsm


^~490 ppsm

Last edited by citylover94; 09-12-2016 at 08:48 AM..
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Old 09-12-2016, 09:19 AM
 
Location: Watching half my country turn into Gilead
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So New York's Urban Area is larger than its MSA?
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Old 09-12-2016, 09:46 AM
 
Location: Portland, Maine
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It is possible if they aren't cutting the Urban Area border off at the Connecticut border like the MSA does but that seems unlikely. I am guessing that one of those numbers is wrong.
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Old 09-12-2016, 04:14 PM
 
Location: South Beach and DT Raleigh
13,966 posts, read 24,005,425 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by qworldorder View Post
So New York's Urban Area is larger than its MSA?
Yes. Thanks for catching that one! I inverted the calculation so the correct % should be 102.49%. I suspect that, like San Francisco and Los Angeles, The NYC UA extends into the CSA.

Also, remember that these are two independent data sets collected nearly a year apart from each other like I said in the original post.
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Old 09-12-2016, 04:24 PM
 
Location: South Beach and DT Raleigh
13,966 posts, read 24,005,425 times
Reputation: 14759
Quote:
Originally Posted by atadytic19 View Post
Surprised to see Houston in the 90% + crowd instead of in the 80s with its fellow Texans. Even more surprised that Austin is behind all the other major Texan cities.

Houston does some serious back filling. In a way DFW does too. The gap between Dallas and Fort Worth was quite evident in the 90s but not barely existent.

Also surprised at how close Houston and DFW UA populations are in comparison to their MSA. I think DFW will get much bigger in the coming decades and stretch into Tyler and beyond.
I think that the most surprising thing about the entire list for me is that one can't draw regional conclusions about the overstatement of MSAs like usually happens here on C-D. The MSAs stack "all over the map" (pun intended) vis-a-vis their region. A substantial number of the MSAs cluster in the 80-89.9% range and represent MSAs in every region of the country. And, while the NE has some of the highest UA percentages, it also has a few MSAs among the lower ones as well.

For the group above 90%, most (but not all) are physically constrained in one way or another by water, mountains, access to fresh water, etc.
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Old 09-14-2016, 05:36 PM
 
4,345 posts, read 2,730,575 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rnc2mbfl View Post
I think that the most surprising thing about the entire list for me is that one can't draw regional conclusions about the overstatement of MSAs like usually happens here on C-D. The MSAs stack "all over the map" (pun intended) vis-a-vis their region. A substantial number of the MSAs cluster in the 80-89.9% range and represent MSAs in every region of the country. And, while the NE has some of the highest UA percentages, it also has a few MSAs among the lower ones as well.

For the group above 90%, most (but not all) are physically constrained in one way or another by water, mountains, access to fresh water, etc.
Yes, all of that are good points, but based on the comments I see on here all the time I want expecting Houston to be in the 90+ crowd. Houston is often looked at as the poster child for sprawl but looking at the percentage of the metro in the UA, it didn't necessarily own that title.

Houston and LA get a lot of flack, and I think a recount is on order for LA. I think Riverside and San Bernardino bring down LAs stats a great deal.

On to your point about regional differences and natural constraints to growth, in the Southern Region Two Cities are in the 90+ crowd. The 1st Miami, is constrained on two sides. Houston is not constrained at all.

Looking at other regions, Phoenix and Denver are not restrained either.
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