United States micropolitan area

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United States Micropolitan Statistical Areas (μSA), as defined by the Census Bureau and the Office of Management and Budget, are urban areas in the United States based around a core city or town with a population of 10,000 to 49,999. The micropolitan area designation was created in 2003. Like the better-known metropolitan area, this is an economic and demographic measurement, independent of political jurisdictions. The bureau has identified 578 such areas in the nation.

The term was created by author G. Scott Thomas for a 1989 article in American Demographics magazine, and was expanded in his 1990 book, The Rating Guide to Life in America's Small Cities. It gained currency in the 1990s to describe growing population centers in the United States that are removed from larger cities, in some cases 100 miles (160 km) or more. They are drawing migrants both from rural America and from suburban areas, offering some of the cultural attractions and conveniences of towns (such as fast food chains, movie theaters, general big-box retail chains like Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Target and Meijer, and in some cases even a shopping mall or an airport), without all the expenses and liabilities of urban sprawl. Telecommuting and internet mail-ordering can make it easier to organize trade and commerce from an isolated population center. Employers find it easier to open a factory or an office park in these towns, which have plenty of developable land and lower real estate costs than the suburbs or traditional metropolitan areas, which in turn has lead to many housing subdivisions and suburban cultures similar to that of those found in larger metropolitan areas developing in and around the micropolitan areas.

Micropolitan cities do not have the economic or political importance of large cities, but are nevertheless significant centers of population and production, drawing workers and shoppers from a wide local area. Because the designation is based on the core town's population and not on that of the whole area, some micropolitan areas are actually larger than some metropolitan areas. The largest of the areas, the one whose core city is Torrington, Connecticut, had a population in excess of 180,000 in 2000; Torrington's population in that year's census was only 35,202.

Many such areas have dynamic rates of growth; however, all micropolitan areas combined account for about 10% of the population. Demographers do not expect this percentage to increase greatly in the foreseeable future, partly because some of these areas will become metropolitan areas.