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I am just curious as to what other people's perceptions of metropolitan area size is like, and how it compares to my own perception. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with where you've lived and what you're used to. For example, some people consider Boston metro to be medium/small, but to me it is large, having been native to Hartford, CT metro. I have known someone who thought that the Tucson metro is large, but to me it is small.
For me, I would classify them as follows (with examples)...
Extra Large (about 6 million+): Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas
Large (about 3-6 million): Boston, San Francisco, Phoenix
Medium (about 1-3 million): Cincinnati, Kansas City, Las Vegas
Small (about 500,000 - 1 million): Charleston, Stockton, Akron
Extra Small (about less than 500,000): Abilene, East Stroudsburg, Bowling Green
There is a scientific was to classify them by five distinct size classes (XL, L, M, S, XS). If you add up the total aggregate population of all 381 metro areas, then divide that by 5, then organize them by population quintile.
As a result, there are this many metro areas by size, in this nation:
Considering a Metro with close to a Million people in it a "small" Metro seems really wrong to me. I'd personally consider that Large or at least Medium sized.
Are we using MSA or CSA as the standard here? What about MSAs that are part of CSAs that have a strong regional identity and interdependence among the cities (e.g., the Bay Area, NC Triangle, etc.)?
Big City, 4 million + (Boston, Houston, Philly, NYC, LA, etc.)
Mid-sized City, 2 million - 4 million (Detroit, StL, Seattle, Minneapolis)
Small City, 500K - 2 million (Portland, Milwaukee, Tulsa, Austin)
Below that isn't really a city in my mind. Those are towns.
Big City, 4 million + (Boston, Houston, Philly, NYC, LA, etc.)
Mid-sized City, 2 million - 4 million (Detroit, StL, Seattle, Minneapolis)
Small City, 500K - 2 million (Portland, Milwaukee, Tulsa, Austin)
Below that isn't really a city in my mind. Those are towns.
It's interesting on how our various perceptions of standards for relative city size can vary so much.
I grew up in simpler times during the baby boomer era & my mom used a trick to help her remember the network affiliation of the closest tv station to us that served our market.
She used the phrase "naughty big city" to remember "NBC" for that particular station. It was located in what we considered to be a "city" with a population of 31,000.
Mind you that there were only 3 & then later 4 channels available to us unless we had a tower antenna & used a roter (sp?) device that changed the antenna direction.
90% of your metros are either small or extra small.
XL - over 5 million
L - 2-5 million
M - 750K to 2 million
S - 250K to 750K
XS - under 250K
Yes, but although 90% of them are small or extra small, they only account for 40% of the population among all metro areas in aggregate. America is FULL of hundreds of small / extra small metro areas. That's the reality here.
Are we using MSA or CSA as the standard here? What about MSAs that are part of CSAs that have a strong regional identity and interdependence among the cities (e.g., the Bay Area, NC Triangle, etc.)?
To put this into perspective, there are 381 metro areas and only 52 have at least 1 million people.
Actually, 53 have at least a million people (Tucson just crossed the line recently).
But your premise is correct.
That means only 14% of all metro areas have at least 1 million people. Therefore, I think it's reasonable to say that 89% of the metro areas are small or extra small.
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Your perception...
