1850-2000 Metropolitan Areas: Components and Microdata Correspondence
The METAREA variable, which IPUMS USA provides for samples from 1850 to 2011, identifies metro areas using varying metropolitan definitions across time:
- For decennial census samples for 1950 to 2000, METAREA generally uses contemporary metropolitan area delineations from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB, previously called the Bureau of the Budget).
- For ACS/PRCS samples from 2005 to 2011, METAREA uses the 1999 OMB delineations, as were used in Census 2000 publications.
- For pre-1950 samples, the general approach is to apply the 1950 standards to historical statistics. One deviation from the 1950 standards is that all pre-1950 delineations are county-based, even in New England.
METAREA is not available for 2012-onward ACS/PRCS samples or the 2010 census 10% sample. For information about variables that provide metro area codes for these samples, see the overview page: IPUMS USA Variables for Metropolitan Areas.
Importantly, in samples from 1960 to 2011 (excluding the 1970 and 1980 metro samples), METAREA only partially identifies the populations of many metro areas, and the unidentified portions can be considerably large, occasionally over 50%. See the METAREA variable description for a complete explanation.
These additional resource pages identify the counties that constitute each of the historical metro areas identified by METAREA:
- Components of metropolitan areas that existed in 2000 (1900-2011 samples)
- Components of metropolitan areas that existed in 1900 (1850-2011 samples)
This resource page indicates which metro areas are only partially identified by METAREA and reports the percentage of each metro area's population that resided in excluded areas for each sample:
- Incompletely identified metropolitan areas (1960-2011 samples)
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