Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I appreciate DSRME investigating this enough to get the official Census Bureau data. Newspapers and sometimes city governments put out data that is not Census Bureau data and is incorrect. Then people report this false data in forums such as this.This primarily happens when counties are incorrectly added to an MSA that are not part of the MSA. This seems to happen more often in split MSAs such as the Greenville Spartanburg or Raleigh Durham areas. Often in the Raleigh Durham area false data is put out on forums such as this. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) of the federal government decides the criteria for counties to meet to be part of an MSA or CSA. I do not see false data on forums regarding the Greenville Spartanburg area although it is a split MSA.
The Census Buteau usually announces additions and subtractions of counties to MSAs by the second year after the census officially begins. For example, the additional and subtracted counties were complete by July 2022. There will be no new adjustments until 2032.
Union County SC and Cherokee County SC are still stand alone counties and are not part of any MSA. The Spartanburgh MSA is still just Spartanburg County.
I do not expect the Greenville Anderson and Spartanburg MSAs to merge into one MSA anytime soon or possibly never. In the 1990 Census, the criteria changed for counties to belong to an MSA. The criteria is based solely on commuting patterns. Prior to 1990, if 15 percent of the non-farm workforce in Spartanburg County commuted into the central county (Greenville County) then Spartanburg County met the criteria to be part of the Greenville MSA. And Spartanbug did meet that criteria so it was part of the Greenville MSA.
But in the 1990 Census, the threshold was bumped up to 25 percent of the non-farm work force of an outlying county must commute into the central county. This change split several regions of the US including Greenville Spartanburg, GreensboroWinston Salem, Raleigh Durham, Baltimore Washington, LA and Inland Empire, San Jose and San Fran. This change today also certainly affects Dayton Cincy, and Cleveland Akron. Regions that it did not impact are Minneapolis St Paul, Miami Ft Lauderdale, and Dallas Ft Worth.
What was the reason for the change? The OMB wanted to create a separate metro designation for regions where the central county does not dominate its region. This new designation is the CSA. MSA stands for Metropolitan Statistical Area and CSA is for Combined Statistical Area. For an outlying county to be part of a CSA, 15 percent of the non-farm workforce of that outlying county must commute into the central county.
To explain further, I will use the Raleigh Durham area as an example since they are the region of the US that whines the most about their split MSA. One problem there is that the Research Triangle Park (RTP) is primarily in Durham County. The major employment centers such as downtown Raleigh, RTP, downtown Durham, Duke University, and Chapel Hill are spread over 3 counties. Raleigh does not dominate its region. Downtown Raleigh has fewer than 50K employees and this is prior to Covid lockdowns. This is small for a downtown with a CSA of 2.1 million. In contrast, in the Charlotte area, all of the large employment centers such as downtown, university, airport, South Park and Ballantyne are all in Mecklenburg county. And downtown charlotte has 120k downtown employees prior to Covid for a csa of 2.9 million.
Durham County, the second most populous in the RDU area could stand alone and does not need Raleigh and Wak County cause it has large employment centers of its own. York County SC, only slightly less populous than Durham County, is much more dependent on Mecklenburg County. York would have difficulty standing alone as it’s own employment center. Consequently, Charlotte dominates its region much more.
In Greenville Spartanburg, Spartanburg County is similar to Durham County in that it has the BMW plant and a few other large employers. BMW employs 11k and that is significant. In addition, Spartanburg County has has been a dominant county in the region for a long time . It has big ones. For example, Spartanburg the city has a much bigger downtown thanRock Hill. But York County is only slightly smaller in population. This tells me that in the distant past Spartanburg was an important city that has stood alone for a long time and not needed Greenville to be succesful.
I tried to find commuting data for the area. From what I could find, it looks like Spartanburg County is a long ways from reaching the 25 percent threshold. But I am curious if someone can find some good data on commuting by percentage. I would like to see that.
But it is difficult to flip a county. That is especially true with a more populous county like Spartanburg that is well established. Brunswick County NC , in 2010 Census,flipped from the Wilmington nc msa to the Myrtle beach MSA. But the population of Brunswick county is only 144k. That is calabash NC area. It is mostly a service and tourist community. It is no surprise that many found better employment in restaurants in Myrtle beach or north Myrtle beach.
In conclusion, I do not see the two MSAs merging any time soon unless the criteria is changed again by the OMB or SpartanburgCounty’s commuting percentage into Greenville County is already close to 25 percent.
By the way, here are the official names:
Spartanburg MSA
Greenville Anderson Greer MSA
Greenville Spartanburg Anderson CSA
To get census Buteau data go to Census Reporter.
To get most recent population data go to : do a google search on largest MSA populations in US then select Wikipedia. Census Buteau utilizes Wikipedia.
Also google search : largest CSA populations inUS and select Wikipedia.
For additional hood census data you can google search - us census bureau quick facts
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
