Description

A metropolitan area, or metro area, is a region consisting of a large urban core together with surrounding communities that have a high degree of economic and social integration with the urban core.

MET2013 identifies metro areas of residence using the 2013 definitions for metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

MET2013 is available only for 2000 and later samples. For information about variables that provide metro area codes for other samples, see the overview page: IPUMS USA Variables for Metropolitan Areas.

Inexact Correspondence with Official Delineations
Since 1990, the only sub-state-level geographic information available in public-use census and ACS/PRCS microdata is for PUMAs, areas which occasionally straddle official metro area boundaries. Given this limitation, MET2013 cannot identify the exact set of households residing in every metro area.

The protocol used by MET2013 is to identify the metro area in which the majority of each PUMA's population resided. If MET2013 identifies a metro area for a given household, it indicates that, for the PUMA where the household resided, a majority of the PUMA's population resided in the identified metro area.

Match Errors and Code Suppression
MET2013's code assignment protocol yields errors of omission (residents of a MSA who are not identified as residents) and errors of commission (non-residents who are identified as residents). PUMAs often nest well within metro area boundaries, resulting in small match errors, if any. For many metro areas, however, especially smaller metro areas, the intersecting PUMAs are a poor match.

As an index of mismatch, IPUMS uses the sum of percent omission error (the portion of an MSA's population residing in excluded PUMAs) and percent commission error (the portion of the population in associated PUMAs that did not reside in the MSA).

MET2013 reports no code for MSAs where the sum of match errors is 15% or more.

For each reported MET2013 code, the MET2013ERR variable identifies the level of the sum of errors. Researchers may use MET2013ERR to impose a more restrictive error limit if desired.

To compute match errors, IPUMS uses 2020 populations for 2022-2031 ACS and PRCS samples, 2010 populations for 2005-2021 ACS and PRCS samples, and 2000 populations for 2000 samples. For samples that use 2000 PUMA definitions (which includes the 2000 samples and ACS/PRCS samples through 2011), IPUMS estimates the populations of the areas of intersection between 2000 PUMAs and 2013 MSAs by summing the populations of census blocks that had their geographic center in each area.

For detailed information about 2013 MSA delineations and their correspondence with PUMAs, see the 2013 MSA geographic resource page.

Comparability

This variable is largely comparable across samples. Two types of changes can impair comparability. First, some metro areas may become identifiable or unidentifiable when there are changes in the associations between 2013 metro areas and PUMA definitions. Second, even when a metro area remains identifiable before and after PUMA definition changes, the spatial configuration of the associated PUMAs may change, potentially causing abrupt changes in the populations associated with the metro area. Because MET2013 maintains a 15% population mismatch tolerance, a change in associated PUMAs could involve up to 15% of the population in both directions (i.e., 15% of the population included and/or omitted, before and/or after).

For detailed information about correspondences between 2013 MSAs and different PUMA definitions, see the MET2013 geographic resource page.

Universe

Availability

• 2023: All samples
• 2022: All samples
• 2021: All samples
• 2020: All samples
• 2019: All samples
• 2018: All samples
• 2017: All samples
• 2016: All samples
• 2015: All samples
• 2014: All samples
• 2013: All samples
• 2012: All samples
• 2011: All samples
• 2010: All samples
• 2009: All samples
• 2008: All samples
• 2007: All samples
• 2006: All samples
• 2005: All samples
• 2004: --
• 2003: --
• 2002: --
• 2001: --
• 2000: 5%; 1% unwt
• 1990: --
• 1980: --
• 1970: --
• 1960: --
• 1950: --
• 1940: --
• 1930: --
• 1920: --
• 1910: --
• 1900: --
• 1880: --
• 1870: --
• 1860: --
• 1850: --

• 2023: All samples
• 2022: All samples
• 2021: All samples
• 2020: All samples
• 2019: All samples
• 2018: All samples
• 2017: All samples
• 2016: All samples
• 2015: All samples
• 2014: All samples
• 2013: All samples
• 2012: All samples
• 2011: All samples
• 2010: All samples
• 2009: All samples
• 2008: All samples
• 2007: All samples
• 2006: All samples
• 2005: All samples
• 2000: PR 5%
• 1990: --
• 1980: --
• 1970: --
• 1930: --
• 1920: --
• 1910: --

Flags

Editing Procedure

There is no editing procedure available for this variable.