Data Cart

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). The 2013 MSAs are the first to be based on 2010 standards and 2010 census data.

MET2013 is available only for 2000 and later samples. Another variable, METAREA, identifies metro areas for earlier samples. Both variables are available for samples from 2000 through 2011. The Comparability section summarizes differences between the two variables.

Inexact Correspondence with Official Delineations
Since 1990, the only sub-state-level geographic information available in census PUMS data is for PUMAs, areas which occasionally straddle official metro area boundaries. Given this limitation, MET2013 cannot identify the exact set of households residing in each 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 in which the household resided, a majority of the PUMA's 2010 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 2010 populations for ACS and PRCS samples and 2000 populations for 2000 samples. For samples that use 2000 PUMA definitions (which includes the 2000 samples and ACS and 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 more detailed information about PUMA-MSA relationships and MET2013 match errors, IPUMS provides these tables (in Excel spreadsheets):

2000 5% sample:

• Crosswalk Between 2013 MSAs and 2000 PUMAs with 2000 Populations

• PUMA Match Summary by MSA

• Crosswalk Between 2013 MSAs and 2000 PUMAs with 2010 Populations

• PUMA Match Summary by MSA

• Crosswalk Between 2013 MSAs and 2010 PUMAs

• PUMA Match Summary by MSA

Comparability

MET2013 is available only for 2000 and later samples. For earlier samples, the metro area of residence is identified by the METAREA variable.

MET2013 differs from METAREA in several ways:

• Delineation base year: METAREA uses different metro area delineations for different samples, generally following the delineations in use at the time of each decennial census and following the 1999 OMB delineations for all ACS and PRCS samples through 2011. MET2013 uses only the 2013 OMB delineations.
• County basis: For samples from 1950 through 2011, METAREA uses OMB delineations that are county-based, defining each metro area as a set of one or more contiguous counties, except in New England, where each metro area is defined as a set of cities or towns. The 2013 delineations used by MET2013 are instead entirely county-based, even in New England.
• Code scheme: METAREA uses 4-digit codes based on 1990 and 1999 OMB codes, but with several adjustments to reflect historical hierarchical relationships among metro areas. MET2013 codes instead use the 5-digit 2013 OMB codes with no adjustments, making it easier to associate MET2013 codes with data from other sources where the OMB codes are used.
• Representativeness: METAREA identifies metro areas only for residents of areas that lie entirely within a single metro area, which prevents errors of commission (no non-residents of a metro area are identified as residents), but it puts no limit on errors of omission (sizable portions of many metro areas' populations are not identified by METAREA). As detailed in the Description section, MET2013 uses an alternative protocol that aims to maximize representativeness. MET2013 also suppresses codes for areas where the sum of omission and commission errors is 15% or more.
• Error reporting: IPUMS lists METAREA's omission errors for individual metro areas on this web page. For MET2013, IPUMS supplies a separate variable, MET2013ERR, that indicates the combined omission and commission error by metro area.

Universe

Availability

• 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: --

• 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.