Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area: Will we ever see another county added to the MSA?

[BrianTH]

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/defa...s-Complete.pdf

Here are the relevant sections. An outlying county has to have 25% commuting with a central county, not another outlying county (I actually don't know which counties in the Pittsburgh MSA are central counties).

Section 2. Central Counties

The central county or counties of a CBSA are those counties that:

(a) Have at least 50 percent of their population in urban areas of at least 10,000 population; or

(b) Have within their boundaries a population of at least 5,000 located in a single urban area of at least 10,000 population.

A central county is associated with the urbanized area or urban cluster that accounts for the largest portion of the county’s population. The central counties associated with a particular urbanized area or urban cluster are grouped to form a single cluster of central counties for purposes of measuring commuting to and from potentially qualifying outlying counties.

Section 3. Outlying Counties

A county qualifies as an outlying county of a CBSA if it meets the following commuting requirements:

(a) At least 25 percent of the workers living in the county work in the central county or counties of the CBSA; or

(b) At least 25 percent of the employment in the county is accounted for by workers who reside in the central county or counties of the CBSA.

A county may be included in only one CBSA. If a county qualifies as a central county of one CBSA and as outlying in another, it falls within the CBSA in which it is a central county. A county that qualifies as outlying to multiple CBSAs falls within the CBSA with which it has the strongest commuting tie, as measured by either 3(a) or 3(b) above. The counties included in a CBSA must be contiguous; if a county is not contiguous with other counties in the CBSA, it will not fall within the CBSA.

[JoeP]

No, the gains are still weak. We'll know more once the national economy improves. When it does that will open more opportunities for out migration, weakening migration growth and weak counties like Beaver could easily fall into negative numbers and Fayette's decline will increase.

I hope I'm wrong, but it's too early to say.

[airwave09]

Originally Posted by Gnutella

I think the Weirton/Steubenville MSA could be added to the Pittsburgh CSA soon.

Great call!