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I don't understand why Huntsville and Decatur, AL are separate MSA's. Yes, the two cities are like two completely different planets in many ways, but still...
I question whether St. Helena Parish should be included in the Baton Rouge metro area, it's entirely rural and doesn't need to be part of any metro area. Same with West Feliciana Parish.
The Baton Rouge and New Orleans metros border one another but are not part of a combined statistical area, not sure if they should be but there are closely linked. Jefferson Parish's geography is weird which makes Grand Isle, more than 2 hours away from New Orleans, part of the metro area. A lot of Jefferson Parish is the immediate suburbs, then a lot of swamps heading due south till you get to Grand Isle, and the only way from Grand Isle to the rest of Jefferson Parish is a rural route through other parishes.
Some hardcore New Orleans people don't like to claim Mandeville, Covington, Hammond, Ponchatoula or even Slidell as part of the New Orleans area. Many people in these areas do commute to New Orleans for work. Hancock County, Mississippi also has lots of connections with the Northshore and Greater New Orleans.
I question the size of the Washington DC metro especially whether Jefferson County, West Virginia should be included. I also question whether Cecil County, Maryland should be in the Philadelphia metro and whether the New York City metro should really include parts of Pennsylvania.
San Bernardino County, California is too large to all be included in Greater Los Angeles. It stretches all the way to the Nevada border. If all of it is included in Greater LA and technically with CLark County NV across the border it would technically mean Los Angeles and Las Vegas are neighbors.
The Savannah metro doesn't include the area in South Carolina directly across from downtown Savannah.
The Savannah metro doesn't include the area in South Carolina directly across from downtown Savannah.
Savannah and Hilton Head/Beaufort have more cultural ties than commuting ties it seems. The geography of the region, which includes a lot of marshes and wetlands that can't be developed, hinders the two from being more connected that probably would have caused them to be considered a single metro area. Also the economy of Hilton Head/Beaufort has a lot of overlap with Savannah's, both having a lot of leisure, hospitality, retail, and service-sector jobs as well as the military so there aren't as many economic reasons to commute to Savannah from Hilton Head/Beaufort (the port and SCAD being the two biggest exceptions).
Baltimore is interesting as well in that there are a lot of commuters on the roads from Southern PA and there are plenty of townships in Southern PA that are indeed Baltimore-area suburbs. However, these towns/counties are not counted as part of the metro area.
I question whether St. Helena Parish should be included in the Baton Rouge metro area, it's entirely rural and doesn't need to be part of any metro area. Same with West Feliciana Parish.
The Baton Rouge and New Orleans metros border one another but are not part of a combined statistical area, not sure if they should be but there are closely linked. Jefferson Parish's geography is weird which makes Grand Isle, more than 2 hours away from New Orleans, part of the metro area. A lot of Jefferson Parish is the immediate suburbs, then a lot of swamps heading due south till you get to Grand Isle, and the only way from Grand Isle to the rest of Jefferson Parish is a rural route through other parishes.
Some hardcore New Orleans people don't like to claim Mandeville, Covington, Hammond, Ponchatoula or even Slidell as part of the New Orleans area. Many people in these areas do commute to New Orleans for work. Hancock County, Mississippi also has lots of connections with the Northshore and Greater New Orleans.
I question the size of the Washington DC metro especially whether Jefferson County, West Virginia should be included. I also question whether Cecil County, Maryland should be in the Philadelphia metro and whether the New York City metro should really include parts of Pennsylvania.
San Bernardino County, California is too large to all be included in Greater Los Angeles. It stretches all the way to the Nevada border. If all of it is included in Greater LA and technically with CLark County NV across the border it would technically mean Los Angeles and Las Vegas are neighbors.
The Savannah metro doesn't include the area in South Carolina directly across from downtown Savannah.
Jefferson County, WV should definitely be in Washington's Metro Area. There's commuter rail from Harpers Ferry to D.C. and the D.C. suburban sprawl is very close. Harpers Ferry to Leesburg or Frederick is less than 30 minutes. And metro area isn't based on the central city, but commuting to the "core counties" which includes a lot of those suburban ones.
The Charleston-Huntington combined MSA in WV-KY-OH is interesting especially since its now a combined area, and its a LONG distance from the Upper Kanawha Valley to Ironton, Ohio, all part of the area. Putnam County, WV used to be in the Charleston metro and now its in the Huntington metro which is technically Huntington-Ashland-Ironton. So technically the metro area has 500,000 people but is very long and narrow.
I'm not sure if Jackson County, WV is part of that metro area there is a lot of commuting from there, at least Ripley, into Charleston.
SF and San Jose shouldn't be separate, nor should Raleigh and Durham.
In many places, urbanized area is a better measure, but still limitations there. Never understood why entire counties have to be put into MSAs/CSAs. Ontario, California is 35 miles from DTLA, but not in the MSA, because it's in a county that goes all the way to the Nevada border. Would make more sense to delineate MSAs by census tract or zip code.
There's not much to be understood. Your county is brought into an MSA when it meets the 25% commuter threshold to either the core city or "core counties" of a metropolitan area. DC MSA is actually quite small compared to Dallas, Houston, Atlanta in sq mileage. Due to super commuting in the DC region, and being one of the most multi nodal metropolises in America, you will have some lower population counties on the edges that make the MSA standard because out in those parts of VA there is nothing to pull them into another metro in that direction. It's core population is along the I-95 corridor. There are heavily populated micropolitan areas like Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania 50 miles away from DC, so an exurban county only has to commute to there rather then go into the core in order to make it into the MSA. DC also has 2 plus million people outside it's MSA within 30 miles or less to it's immediate North and East, but that is cut off because it's Baltimore's MSA, which is exactly why CSA is often brought up in contrast here.
The crazy thing is, Howard County and Anne Arundel County aren’t included in DC’s population, but are 30 minutes from the city. That’s over 800,000 people included in the Baltimore MSA and not DC.
The crazy thing is, Howard County and Anne Arundel County aren’t included in DC’s population, but are 30 minutes from the city. That’s over 800,000 people included in the Baltimore MSA and not DC.
The crazy thing is, Howard County and Anne Arundel County aren’t included in DC’s population, but are 30 minutes from the city. That’s over 800,000 people included in the Baltimore MSA and not DC.
Is Anne Arundel County closer to Washington DC or Baltimore?
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