13.6 Defining Urban Settlements
Urban settlements can be defined in three ways.
Metropolitan Statistical Area
An MSA (Metropolitan statistical area) includes the following:
1. An urbanized area of at least 50,000 inhabitants.
2. The county within which the city is located.
3. Adjacent counties with a high population density and a large percentage of residents working in the he central city's county.
Overlapping Metropolitan Areas
The 366 MSA's and 576 uSAs together are known as core based statistical areas (CBSAs). Recognizing that many MSAs and uSAs have close ties, that cencus has combined some of them into 125 combined statistical areas (CSAs). A CSA is defined as two or more contiguous CBSAs tied together by commuting patterns. The 125 CSAs plus the remaining 186 MSAs and 407 uSAS together are known as primary cencus statistical areas (PCSAs).
Defining Urban Settlements
Counties changing metro status
Increase and decrease in settling
Rural and urban areas
Human settlement - Video Learning - WizScience.com