Talk:Table of United States Combined Statistical Areas

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[edit] Ranks incorrect?

Why aren't the ranks using standard counting numbers? Lots of numbers are being skipped over. Stevie is the man! ^{Talk • Work} 15:59, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

The rank numbers are the rank of the Combined Statistical Area among the U.S. primary census statistical areas which includes all CSAs plus all MSAs and μSAs which are not a component of a CSA. See the Table of United States primary census statistical areas. --Buaidh 17:05, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

Can't we just rank by CSA? Wouldn't that be more clear? Stevie is the man! ^{Talk • Work} 17:10, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

Since 69 of the 100 largest metropolitan areas are Combined Statistical Areas, I though most folks would be more interested in the rank of each CSA among all the metropolitan areas of the United States. Not all the largest metropolitan areas are CSAs though. The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL MSA ranks 11th, the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ MSA ranks 13th, the San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA MSA ranks 16th, and the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL MSA ranks 20th among all primary census statistical areas. --Buaidh 17:32, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

I see your point, but it is still confusing from a common reader's perspective. The CSA ranks feel bogus when they're being mixed with MSA ranks, since as you say, not all the largest MSAs correspond to CSAs. I was thinking along the lines of "amongst CSAs only" but I realize that leaving out non-CSA-bound MSAs would skew the results. The bottom line is that I'm not sure how to report a rank from this article in a specific CSA article. Stevie is the man! ^{Talk • Work} 17:43, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

The United States Census Bureau (USCB) has created 939 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs), which include the 363 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) plus the 576 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (μSAs). The USCB has also created 123 Combined Statistical Areas (CSAs), which are composed of two or more CBSAs. Altogether, the 123 CSAs contain 177 MSAs and 167 μSAs. The 123 CSAs plus the remaining 186 MSAs and 409 μSAs that are not included in a CSA are called primary census statistical areas (PCSAs) since they belong to no higher level census area. I would report the Cincinnati-Middletown-Wilmington, OH-KY-IN CSA as the 25th most populous U.S. metropolitan area. To report the Cincinnati-Middletown-Wilmington, OH-KY-IN CSA as the 21st most populous Combined Statistical Area ignores the four MSAs above which are more populous. Unfortunately the Wikipedia article for United States metropolitan area has been combined with the article for Metropolitan Statistical Area, thus creating all this confusion. These two articles should be separated to avoid this confusion. --Buaidh 18:45, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

I agree with the above comment. The table as it currently looks, with no #11, #13, and some others, just looks weird. Funnyhat 20:31, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

The Table of United States primary census statistical areas lists the rank of all (highest level) metropolitan areas of the United States. I would suggest that you use that table for ranking metropolitan areas rather than this table. This table is primarily for locating the CSAs within the PCSAs. I could list both the rank among PCSAs and the rank among just CSAs, but I think that would really confuse people. --Buaidh 20:44, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

It strikes me as more confusing to skip numbers on the current page. What really would alleviate this problem is better-defining the "rank" column. I'm conditioned to assume that a generic "Rank" column would be the rank in terms of the subject of the list, not in terms of a different list on a different page.--12.47.123.121 23:42, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Missing numbers

The Phoenix Metropolitan area should be listed at #13 but is missing from the list. The list goes from #12 to #14. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.168.7.243 (talk) 13:41, August 30, 2007 (UTC)

As of the date I write this, the Portland (OR) Metro area is also not listed.

Miami/ South Florida is missing from this list. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tabromo (talk • contribs) 04:49, 12 February 2008 (UTC)