Urbanized Area

From PlanningWiki

Urbanized Area (UA) is a classification used by the United States Census Bureau to define major metropolitan areas. It is used to measure the size of an urban area that extends across city, state, and/or county lines. Urbanized areas by definition contain 50,000 or more people. An urban area containing fewer than 50,000 people is defined as an Urban Cluster.

An urban area is defined as "core census block groups or blocks that have a population density of at least 1000 people per square mile (386 people per square kilometer) and surrounding census blocks that have an overall density of at least 500 people per square mile (193 people per square kilometer)."

The Census Bureau's definition of urbanized areas generally serves as the basis for the Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget.

See also

• Urban Cluster
• Urban area
• Rural area
• Metropolitan statistical area (MSA)

External Links

• Lists of all UAs in the US
• Maps of all UAs in the US
• Census 2000 Urban and Rural Classification