The U.S. Could See Fewer Metro Areas in the Future

Monday, March 8th, 2021 -- 9:00 AM

(AP) There may be fewer metro areas in the U.S. in the near future.

The federal government is proposing to downgrade 144 cities from the metropolitan statistical area designation, and it could be more than just a matter of semantics.

Officials in some of the affected cities worry that the change could have adverse implications for federal funding and economic development.  Under the new proposal, a metro area would have to have at least 100,000 people in its core city to count as an MSA, double the 50,000-person threshold that has been in place for the past 70 years.

Cities formerly designated as metros with core populations between 50,000 and 100,000 people, like Bismarck, North Dakota and Sheboygan, Wisconsin would be changed to “micropolitan” statistical areas instead.

A committee of representatives from federal statistical agencies recently made the recommendations to the Office of Management and Budget, saying it’s purely for statistical purposes and not to be used for funding formulas. As a practical matter, however, that is how it’s often used.

Several housing, transportation and Medicare reimbursement programs are tied to communities being metropolitan statistical areas, or MSAs, so the designation change concerns some city officials.

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