Combined Statistical Area

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The United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defines micropolitan and metropolitan statistical areas. Metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas consist of one or more counties. Currently defined metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas are based on application of the 2000 standards (which appeared in the Federal Register on December 27, 2000) to Census 2000 data, as updated by application of those standards to more recent Census Bureau population estimates. The current definition is as of December 2005.

If specified criteria are met, adjacent metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas, in various combinations, may become the components of a new set of areas called combined statistical areas (CSAs). Using Census Bureau data the OMB compiles lists of CSAs. The areas that combine retain their own designations as metropolitan or micropolitan statistical areas within the larger combined statistical area. There are 124 CSAs defined by OMB as of December 2005.

Note that CSAs represent multiple metropolitan or micropolitan areas that have a high degree of employment interchange. CSAs often represent regions with common labor and media markets. The use of CSAs as a representation for a single metropolitan area is not always appropriate.

It is important to note that the list does not include large metros that are not part of any CSA. For example, the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Miami Beach, FL metropolitan region is an MSA, but does not form any part of a CSA, so is not on the list.

1 Largest CSAs
2 Notes
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Largest CSAs

The following is a list of the 26 most-populous combined statistical areas in the United States, according to the July 1, 2005 U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

Rank	Combined Statistical Area	State(s)	2005 Estimate	2000 Population	1990 Population	Percent Change (2000–2005)	Percent Change (1990–2000)
1	New York–Newark–Bridgeport	NY–NJ–CT–PA	21,903,623	21,361,797	19,710,239	2.5	8.4
2	Los Angeles–Long Beach–Riverside	CA	17,629,607^[1]	16,373,645	14,531,529	7.7	12.7
3	Chicago–Naperville–Michigan City	IL–IN–WI	9,661,840	9,312,255	8,385,397	3.8	11.1
4	Washington–Baltimore–Northern Virginia	DC–MD–VA–WV	8,125,656	7,572,647		7.3
5	Boston–Worcester–Manchester	MA–RI–NH	7,427,336	7,298,695		1.8
6	San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland	CA	7,168,176	7,092,596	6,290,008	1.1	12.8
7	Philadelphia–Camden–Vineland	PA–NJ–DE–MD	6,372,799	6,207,223		2.7
8	Dallas–Fort Worth	TX	6,171,301	5,487,956		12.5
9	Detroit–Warren–Flint	MI	5,428,000	5,357,538	5,095,695	1.3	5.1
10	Houston–Baytown–Huntsville	TX	5,380,661	4,815,122	3,855,180	11.7	24.9
11	Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Gainesville	GA–AL	5,249,121	4,548,344	3,317,380	15.4	37.1
12	Seattle–Tacoma–Olympia	WA	3,806,453	3,604,165	3,008,669	5.6	19.8
13	Minneapolis–St. Paul–St. Cloud	MN–WI	3,467,108	3,271,888	2,809,713	6.0	16.4
14	Cleveland–Akron–Elyria	OH	2,931,774	2,945,831	2,859,644	-0.5	3.0
15	Denver–Aurora–Boulder	CO	2,869,377	2,629,980		9.1
16	St. Louis–St. Charles–Farmington	MO–IL	2,840,179	2,754,328	2,629,801	3.1	4.7
†	San Juan–Caguas–Fajardo	PR	2,694,909	2,622,876	2,429,378	2.7	8.0
17	Pittsburgh–New Castle	PA	2,478,883	2,525,730	2,564,535	-1.9	-1.5
18	Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Truckee	CA–NV	2,187,694	1,930,149	1,587,249	13.3	21.6
19	Charlotte–Gastonia–Salisbury	NC–SC	2,120,745	1,897,034	1,501,663	11.8	26.3
20	Cincinnati-Hamilton, OH-KY-IN Metropolitan Statistical Area\|Cincinnati–Middletown–Wilmington	OH–KY–IN	2,113,011	2,050,175	1,880,332	3.1	9.0
21	Kansas City–Overland Park–Kansas City	MO–KS	2,015,282	1,901,070	1,695,974	6.0	12.1
22	Orlando–The Villages	FL	1,997,437	1,697,906	1,256,429	17.6	35.1
23	Indianapolis–Anderson–Columbus	IN	1,958,453	1,843,588	1,594,779	6.2	15.6
24	Columbus–Marion–Chillicothe	OH	1,936,351	1,835,189	1,613,711	5.5	13.7
25	Las Vegas-Paradise-Pahrump	NV	1,751,028	1,408,250		24.3
26	Milwaukee–Racine–Waukesha	WI	1,708,563	1,689,572	1,607,183	1.1	5.1