Description

PWMET23 identifies the metropolitan area where the respondent worked if the respondent's workplace was in an identifiable metropolitan area.

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.

PWMET23 identifies metro areas using the 2023 definitions for metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The 2023 MSAs are the first to be based on 2020 standards and 2020 census data.

Inexact Correspondence with Official Delineations
IPUMS determines PWMET23 codes based on Place-of-Work PUMAs (PWPUMA00), which are the only sub-state geographic units identified in the source PUMS data for place of work.

Because Place-of-Work PUMAs occasionally straddle official 2023 MSA boundaries,
PWMET23 cannot identify the exact set of households residing in each metro area
.

The protocol IPUMS uses for PWMET23 is to identify the MSA in which the majority of each Place-of-Work PUMA's population resided. If PWMET23 identifies a metro area for a given respondent, it indicates that, for the Place-of-Work PUMA in which the respondent previously resided, a majority of the population resided in the identified metro area.

Match Errors and Code Suppression
PWMET23's code assignment protocol yields errors of omission (residents of a metro area who are not identified as residents) and errors of commission (non-residents who are identified as residents). Place-of-Work PUMAs often nest within MSA boundaries, resulting in small match errors. For many metro areas, however, especially smaller metro areas, the Place-of-Work 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).

PWMET23 reports no code for MSAs where the sum of match errors is 15% or more.

For each reported PWMET23 code, the PWMET23ERR variable identifies the level of the sum of errors. Researchers may use PWMET23ERR to impose a more restrictive error limit if desired.

To compute match errors, IPUMS uses 2020 populations for 2022-2031 ACS and PRCS samples and 2010 populations are used for 2012-2021 ACS and PRCS samples.

For detailed information about 2023 MSA delineations and their correspondence with Place-of-Work PUMAs, see the 2023 Place-of-Work Areas geographic resource page.

Comparability

PWMET23 is available only for 2012 and later samples. Relevant variables, including PWMET13 and PWMETAREA, identify the place-of-work metro area for earlier samples.

The more recently developed PWMET23 and PWMET13 variables differ from PWMETAREA in several ways:

• Delineation base year: PWMETAREA 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. PWMET23 uses only the 2023 OMB delineations and PWMET13 uses only the 2013 OMB delineations.
• County basis: For samples from 1950 through 2011, PWMETAREA 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 2023 delineations used by PWMET23 and 2013 delineations used by PWMET13 are instead entirely county-based, even in New England.
• Code scheme: PWMETAREA uses 4-digit codes based on 1990 and 1999 OMB codes, but with several adjustments to reflect historical hierarchical relationships among metro areas. PWMET23 and PWMET13 instead use the 5-digit 2023 and 2013 OMB codes, respectively, with no adjustments, making it easier to associate PWMET23 and PWMET13 codes with data from other sources where the OMB codes are used.
• Representativeness: PWMETAREA identify metro areas only for previous residents of areas that lie entirely within a single metro area, which prevents errors of commission (all respondents identified as workers in a metro area do in fact work there), but it puts no limit on errors of omission (sizable portions of many metro areas' workers are not identified by PWMETAREA). The PWMET23 and PWMET13 variables instead use a majority-assignment protocol that aims to maximize representativeness. PWMET13 also suppresses codes for areas where the sum of omission and commission errors is 15% or more.
• Error reporting: IPUMS does not at this time supply a summary of the omission errors in PWMETAREA identifications. For the PWMET23 and PWMET13 variables, IPUMS supplies separate error reporting variables, PWMET23ERR and PWMET13ERR, that indicates the combined omission and commission error by metro area.

Universe

Availability

• 2024: All samples
• 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: ACS
• 2014: ACS
• 2013: ACS
• 2012: ACS
• 2011: --
• 2010: --
• 2009: --
• 2008: --
• 2007: --
• 2006: --
• 2005: --
• 2004: --
• 2003: --
• 2002: --
• 2001: --
• 2000: --
• 1990: --
• 1980: --
• 1970: --
• 1960: --
• 1950: --
• 1940: --
• 1930: --
• 1920: --
• 1910: --
• 1900: --
• 1880: --
• 1870: --
• 1860: --
• 1850: --

• 2024: All samples
• 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: PRCS
• 2014: PRCS
• 2013: PRCS
• 2012: PRCS
• 2011: --
• 2010: --
• 2009: --
• 2008: --
• 2007: --
• 2006: --
• 2005: --
• 2000: --
• 1990: --
• 1980: --
• 1970: --
• 1930: --
• 1920: --
• 1910: --

Flags

Editing Procedure

There is no editing procedure available for this variable.