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"Savannah is also the largest principal city of the Savannah-Hinesville-Statesboro Combined Statistical Area, a larger trading area that includes the Savannah and Hinesville-Fort Stewart metropolitan areas and (since 2012) the Statesboro Micropolitan Statistical Area. The 2012 estimated population of this area was 516,159, up from 495,745 at the 2010 Census.[21].
WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT: The Metro CSA of Savannah is well over half a million people. This puts Savannah in another tier of cities, and where it probably should have been all along.
@Newsboy. But a CSA is a marketing/trade area (not a metro area). Still, you might be onto something: is the CSA the stat that companies analyze to locate a Whole Foods, a Costco or an Ikea in or near a city, or is it the metro/MSA population? Others on this thread might know.
some insight (just saw this new designation online and it made my day lol)
As someone already pointed out, this has been the way statistical areas have been defined for the past 30 years, so it is not something new that the evil government has "come up with" to employ DC residents. Each census, some of the definitions and criterion changes due to the changes in migration patters and the needs of our citizens, etc.
For CSA, it is logical to add Statesboro to the Savannah & Hinesville MSA's. What is illogical is that Hinesville is considered an MSA instead of a micropolitan statistical area. The only reason Hinesville is considered such is because for urban area designation, US military bases get an automatic 1,000/sq mile density (partially for security reasons) regardless of how many soldiers actually reside on base. Hinesville's urban core has no where near the 50,000 threshhold (I would estimate it at 25-30k but have not conducted any analysis on it), which is part of the reason it does not have as much retail offerings as Statesboro. Statesboro's urban core population is just below the 50,000 threshold (roughly 45-48,000) per my own geospatial analysis, but some local officials are discouraging its reclassification because they fear an increased regulatory burdern of having an MPO created for the city. They could have easily challenged the census to reclassify, but chose not to. Currently the census has the urban core in the mid 30k's as of 2010.
This 517,000 number does nothing for Savannah except by word association. The Savannah MSA has a population of 362,000 as of 2012. Adding Hinesville bumps its up by 81,519 (Liberty & Long Counties) and adding Statesboro increases by 72,694. Anyone being paid to do market research for new retail site selection knows that Savannah did not just grow by 154,000 in one year. But adding Statesboro to the CSA does bring more regional attention to our area, probably stealing some from Augusta, GA-SC MSA which currently holds at 576,000 but achieves a lot of that from Aiken County SC. Since their commuting patters are much stronger than those between Statesboro & Savannah, it is an MSA.
Currently Statesboro sends roughly 2-3,000 commuters to Chatham county, and Savannah has several hundred who commute to Statesboro. Many GSU professors choose to live in Chatham. Generally commuting patterns have to share 10-15% between MSA's. Since the commuting relationship between Bryan and Effingham Counties are so strong between Statesboro (Ft Stewart cuts Northern Bryan from accessing Savannah, and Northern Effingham highways do not connect as easily either), this relationships is now being recognized in the data finally.
I think its interesting too because Statesboro has always been confused as to whether its more associated with Savannah or Augusta (I have always thought Savannah) but some economic studies have lumped it into Augusta's region. Also Southern Bulloch is starting to see some small suburbanization that I think is more influenced by Savannah than Statesboro. I am interested to see how all this plays out as Savannah/Pooler and Statesboro continue to urbanize and where the two will define their urban boundaries or even meet in the coming years.
As someone already pointed out, this has been the way statistical areas have been defined for the past 30 years, so it is not something new that the evil government has "come up with" to employ DC residents. Each census, some of the definitions and criterion changes due to the changes in migration patters and the needs of our citizens, etc.
For CSA, it is logical to add Statesboro to the Savannah & Hinesville MSA's. What is illogical is that Hinesville is considered an MSA instead of a micropolitan statistical area. The only reason Hinesville is considered such is because for urban area designation, US military bases get an automatic 1,000/sq mile density (partially for security reasons) regardless of how many soldiers actually reside on base. Hinesville's urban core has no where near the 50,000 threshhold (I would estimate it at 25-30k but have not conducted any analysis on it), which is part of the reason it does not have as much retail offerings as Statesboro. Statesboro's urban core population is just below the 50,000 threshold (roughly 45-48,000) per my own geospatial analysis, but some local officials are discouraging its reclassification because they fear an increased regulatory burdern of having an MPO created for the city. They could have easily challenged the census to reclassify, but chose not to. Currently the census has the urban core in the mid 30k's as of 2010.
This 517,000 number does nothing for Savannah except by word association. The Savannah MSA has a population of 362,000 as of 2012. Adding Hinesville bumps its up by 81,519 (Liberty & Long Counties) and adding Statesboro increases by 72,694. Anyone being paid to do market research for new retail site selection knows that Savannah did not just grow by 154,000 in one year. But adding Statesboro to the CSA does bring more regional attention to our area, probably stealing some from Augusta, GA-SC MSA which currently holds at 576,000 but achieves a lot of that from Aiken County SC. Since their commuting patters are much stronger than those between Statesboro & Savannah, it is an MSA.
Currently Statesboro sends roughly 2-3,000 commuters to Chatham county, and Savannah has several hundred who commute to Statesboro. Many GSU professors choose to live in Chatham. Generally commuting patterns have to share 10-15% between MSA's. Since the commuting relationship between Bryan and Effingham Counties are so strong between Statesboro (Ft Stewart cuts Northern Bryan from accessing Savannah, and Northern Effingham highways do not connect as easily either), this relationships is now being recognized in the data finally.
I think its interesting too because Statesboro has always been confused as to whether its more associated with Savannah or Augusta (I have always thought Savannah) but some economic studies have lumped it into Augusta's region. Also Southern Bulloch is starting to see some small suburbanization that I think is more influenced by Savannah than Statesboro. I am interested to see how all this plays out as Savannah/Pooler and Statesboro continue to urbanize and where the two will define their urban boundaries or even meet in the coming years.
EXCELLENT POST! I'd like to hear your opinion and analysis of the Hilton Head-Beaufort-Bluffton MSA in relation to Savannah.
I aree newsboy, that was an excellent post. I wish he would come back and give more input on these kinds of topics. As for Hinesville being considered a metro, i always disagreed with the idea that its a metro. but just like he said its because it has a military installation so its automatic. Statesboro always had more to offer retail wise than Hinesville.
I aree newsboy, that was an excellent post. I wish he would come back and give more input on these kinds of topics. As for Hinesville being considered a metro, i always disagreed with the idea that its a metro. but just like he said its because it has a military installation so its automatic. Statesboro always had more to offer retail wise than Hinesville.
I still think we're underrepresented retail wise, though, as evidenced by our overcrowded Wal-Mart.
I aree newsboy, that was an excellent post. I wish he would come back and give more input on these kinds of topics. As for Hinesville being considered a metro, i always disagreed with the idea that its a metro. but just like he said its because it has a military installation so its automatic. Statesboro always had more to offer retail wise than Hinesville.
Just because Hinesville has a "military installation" has nothing to do with the fact that it is a metropolitan area. Not that alone at least.
Just because Hinesville has a "military installation" has nothing to do with the fact that it is a metropolitan area. Not that alone at least.
It has a lot to do with classification standards which all have to do with the type of urban area that is determined for each city. Urbanized Areas become Metropolitan and Urban Clusters become Micropolitan. Hinesville has a giant military base which is a huge advantage in this determination. Per census criteria for determining urban area boundaries, any areas which a military base is included automatically received a 1,000 per square mile density regardless of how many people actually reside in those boundaries overlaying the base. We all know the vast majority of that base is pine trees, but for census definitions, any overlay of a proposed urban area boundaries which cover any part of Ft Stewart receives an automatic 1,000 per square mile regardless of what the actual pine tree to person ratio really is.
Statesboro's struggle to become reclassified as an Urbanized Area has to do with the density requirement as Bulloch County is mostly covered in wetlands which cannot be developed for uses other than farming. Statesboro's development pattern creates very odd shapes due to so much of the land that cannot be built upon. Georgia Southern University cannot build many of the structures it needs to the same reason. Building around all the undevelopable areas means more and more land will be incorporated into a density calculation which will have zeros added into it since no one can live on it. To draw an urban polygon to include all the sprawling residential subdivisions surrounding Statesboro means one would have to include large wetland areas which reduce density making it difficult to meet the 1,000 threshold. It would be very advantageous if we could just say, "even though no one lives on these wetlands, we're just gonna say it has 1000/sm density and call it a day". Yes, having a military base has much ado about classification.
EXCELLENT POST! I'd like to hear your opinion and analysis of the Hilton Head-Beaufort-Bluffton MSA in relation to Savannah.
I know it will be harder to get Beaufort and Jasper counties lumped in with Savannah now that they constitute their own MSA. The commuting patterns from each of those counties into Savannah MSA counties are rather low. Looking at the 2006-2010 data, Beaufort County had 1,608 persons commuting to Chatham County for work and almost as many were heading in the opposite direction (1,373). Beaufort County's total workforce in 2010 was 63K people and the amount of commuters heading to Bryan and Effingham counties was negligible (less than 50 going to each). So obviously the commuter threshold wasn't met in that case. Jasper County had a slightly stronger commuting tie to Chatham with 1,040 persons headed there for work with a total workforce of a little over 10K (again, the number heading to Bryan and Effingham was negligible). But with 3,800 county residents commuting to Beaufort County to work, there was no chance for it to eventually get pulled into Savannah's MSA.
I've always contended that the large numbers of retirees in Beaufort and Jasper counties, plus the large number of hospitality jobs in Beaufort County in particular related to the tourism industry, has worked against those counties being included in Savannah's MSA. This means you have a smaller than normal workforce in place and a decent amount of jobs in place so that not quite as many workers have to travel out of the county for work, even if those jobs don't pay so well; that probably explains why almost as many folks from Chatham Country commute to Beaufort County for work.
I think its interesting too because Statesboro has always been confused as to whether its more associated with Savannah or Augusta (I have always thought Savannah) but some economic studies have lumped it into Augusta's region. Also Southern Bulloch is starting to see some small suburbanization that I think is more influenced by Savannah than Statesboro. I am interested to see how all this plays out as Savannah/Pooler and Statesboro continue to urbanize and where the two will define their urban boundaries or even meet in the coming years.
It's definitely more closely associated with Savannah. We don't get any of the Augusta news or radio stations (at least on Cable), although Millen/Sylvania to our north does. If there's any gray area between Savannah and Augusta, then Jenkins and Screven Counties are it. Bulloch is definitely part of the Savannah area.
Haven't noticed at lot of development in Southern Bulloch as of yet. Hwy 80 between Brooklet and Bryan County is still mostly farmland/forest, as it much of I-16.
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some insight (just saw this new designation online and it made my day lol)
