2016 Cartographic Boundary File, Current Metropolitan/Micropolitan Statistical Area for United States, 1:5,000,000
Description
The 2016 cartographic boundary shapefiles are simplified
representations of selected geographic areas from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master
Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing
(MAF/TIGER) Database (MTDB). These boundary files are specifically designed for
small-scale thematic mapping. When possible, generalization is performed with the
intent to maintain the hierarchical relationships among geographies and to maintain
the alignment of geographies within a file set for a given year. Geographic areas may
not align with the same areas from another year. Some geographies are available as
nation-based files while others are available only as state-based files. Metropolitan
and Micropolitan Statistical Areas are together termed Core Based Statistical Areas
(CBSAs) and are defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and consist of
the county or counties or equivalent entities associated with at least one urban core
(urbanized area or urban cluster) of at least 10,000 population, plus adjacent
counties having a high degree of social and economic integration with the core as
measured through commuting ties with the counties containing the core. Categories of
CBSAs are: Metropolitan Statistical Areas, based on urbanized areas of 50,000 or more
population; and Micropolitan Statistical Areas, based on urban clusters of at least
10,000 population but less than 50,000 population. The generalized boundaries in this
file are based on those defined by OMB based on the 2010 Census, published in 2013,
and updated in 2015.