Research Note: Toward an Effective Subcounty Settlement Classification: Comparative Density Revisited

The federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defines metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) for use by federal agencies in collecting and publishing statistics. In order to ensure their continued usefulness, OMB reviews and revises the standards for defining MSAs at least once every 10 years, typically prior to each decennial census. The most recent review was one of the most thorough and introduced some significant changes. Whereas the review produced a revised set of standards in December, 2000, OMB has encouraged continued research on a number of issues that remain open for discussion. These issues include: (1) the geographic building blocks used in defining statistical areas, (2) the creation of a settlement classification that encompasses all of the nation's territory, and (3) the categories of settlement (e.g., urban, suburban, rural) recognized within the classification. This note documents continuing research on how these issues might be addressed by using subcounty building blocks in a comparative population-density-based approach to classifying settlement.