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I for one can’t fathom how by using different methodology you can get a different number
Because believe it or not, most every metropolitan statistical area has areas in it that are rural and not urban. The components that make up these 2 geography types are entirely different and they have entirely different requirements. MSAs are entire counties (and independent cities that don't belong to counties - see Washington DC MSA for prime example of that). Commute patterns play a big role into what counties get included into an MSA. Urban Areas drill down to more of a census tract level and have more to do with population density, building density, commercial business density, etc.
Because believe it or not, most every metropolitan statistical area has areas in it that are rural and not urban. The components that make up these 2 geography types are entirely different and they have entirely different requirements. MSAs are entire counties (and independent cities that don't belong to counties - see Washington DC MSA for prime example of that). Commute patterns play a big role into what counties get included into an MSA. Urban Areas drill down to more of a census tract level and have more to do with population density, building density, commercial business density, etc.
Splitting hairs, and in the scheme of things, kind of irrelevant. Milwaukee is one of the more dense cities in the country, but that's city proper, and goodness knows, this is more relevant than that?? Obscure, and not used in most circumstances. Often on this forum, people look for some numbers to boost their city of choice. They'll always find a way.
But, if this is the standard, please, someone, tell me.
Splitting hairs, and in the scheme of things, kind of irrelevant. Milwaukee is one of the more dense cities in the country, but that's city proper, and goodness knows, this is more relevant than that?? Obscure, and not used in most circumstances. Often on this forum, people look for some numbers to boost their city of choice. They'll always find a way.
But, if this is the standard, please, someone, tell me.
Again, it depends on what you are looking at. Considering this website has more to do with density, urbanity, etc... Urban Area is technically more useful for those types of conversations.
I'll give you an example. The density of Istanbul is listed at something like 6000 ppsm, but that's pretty much the entire metro area counting tons of rural land. The actual urban area is one of the densest in the entire world. The Metropolitan number has no bearing on the reality of its urbanity.
If you are looking at the number of people within certain commutable distance to a major population center, then msa could be more useful. I'm actually really surprised. Urban Area is a better measure for urbanity around a major population center than the MSA is. More people should be for using UA on here considering the obsession with urbanity and density. Yet, people think this is the OP posting to promote something. In reality, it seems that people on here still don't grasp what a metropolitan area actually is by definition. Besides, the actual rankings of UA and MSA are for the most part the same anyway.
Last edited by marothisu; 04-13-2019 at 08:39 AM..
So many ways to finagle numbers..Boston much larger when using urban area and csa and relatively smaller with msa..at the end of the day this stuff really doesn’t mean much..as was said before if someone wants to promote the size of their city they’ll find the statistic to do it
Because believe it or not, most every metropolitan statistical area has areas in it that are rural and not urban. The components that make up these 2 geography types are entirely different and they have entirely different requirements. MSAs are entire counties (and independent cities that don't belong to counties - see Washington DC MSA for prime example of that). Commute patterns play a big role into what counties get included into an MSA. Urban Areas drill down to more of a census tract level and have more to do with population density, building density, commercial business density, etc.
Yeah this should be the size purists favorite metric because it's unbroken development. It's so strict that the SF Metro is broken into 5 separate urban areas due to water and hills.
Urban Areas( Pop 1 Million+) by Area in Square Miles:
3,450.2 New York-Newark
2,645.4 Atlanta
2,442.8 Chicago
1,981.4 Philadelphia
1,873.5 Boston
1,779.1 Dallas-Ft Worth
1,736.0 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim
1,660.0 Houston
1,337.2 Detroit
1,321.7 Washington
1,238.6 Miami
1,146.6 Phoenix-Mesa
1,021.8 Minneapolis-St Paul
1,010.3 Seattle
957.0 Tampa-St Petersburg
923.6 St Louis
905.2 Pittsburgh
787.7 Cincinnati
772.0 Cleveland
741.5 Charlotte
732.4 San Diego
717.0 Baltimore
705.7 Indianapolis
677.8 Kansas City
668.0 Denver
597.7 Orlando
597.1 San Antonio
545.6 Milwaukee
545.1 Providence
545.0 Riverside-San Bernardino
530.4 Jacksonville
524.4 Portland
523.6 San Francisco-Oakland
523.0 Austin
515.5 Virginia Beach
510.5 Columbus
497.3 Memphis
471.0 Sacramento
416.8 Las Vegas-Henderson
286.0 San Jose
277.9 Salt Lake City-West Valley
Another startling aspect of urban areas is that this measure exposes suburban sprawl and where it's the most acute.
So many ways to finagle numbers..Boston much larger when using urban area and csa and relatively smaller with msa..at the end of the day this stuff really doesn’t mean much..as was said before if someone wants to promote the size of their city they’ll find the statistic to do it
Isn't that the truth?
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