Census’s criteria for Urban Areas

Metropolitan Council

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What is “Urban”?

“The Census Bureau’s urban areas represent densely developed territory, and encompass residential, commercial, and other non-residential urban land uses.”

• Federal Register Notice: March 24, 2022
• Defines Urban blocks and Urban Areas, sets criteria, outlines process
• Census Bureau implementing
• Result will be a list of Urban Areas and a database identifying what Census blocks are Urban or Rural – delayed to December 2022

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Metropolitan Council

Urban blocks criteria: 2022

Initial qualification of Urban blocks

• >= 425 dwelling units/sq. mi. (equivalent to > 0.66 units/acre)
• Or substantial impervious surface: >= 20%
• Or group quarters facility and >= 500 pop/square mile

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Additional qualifying situations: later slide

Census Bureau’s “Urban” is a binary concept: If a Census block is not Urban, then it’s Rural

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Metropolitan Council

Urban Areas criteria: 2022

An Urban Area is a grouping of contiguous or connected Urban blocks that constitutes a population center

1. Aggregating Urban blocks into Urban Areas

• An initial contiguous core area with >= 500 dwelling units
• Contiguous Urban blocks

2. Add-on nearby Urban blocks:

• Any number of “hops” <= 0.5 mile over land area
• And up to one “jump” of 0.51 – 1.5 miles over land area

3. Check population: Urban Area must have >= 5,000 population

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Metropolitan Council

Not done yet! Urban Areas continued

1. Aggregating Urban blocks into Urban Areas
2. Add-on nearby Urban blocks
3. Check population: Urban Area must have >=5,000 population
4. Fills of enclaves / surrounded areas and additional qualifying situations
• Low-density fill (adjacent to qualifying blocks from step 1) with > 200 units/square mile (> 0.3 units/acre)
• Or nearby (<= 0.5 mi) blocks with employment centers (> 1,000 jobs)
• Or nearby blocks with functional airports, determined by FAA definitions
• Or adjacent, surrounded blocks: surrounded by land determined urban in previous steps

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Metropolitan Council

Urban area steps visualized

Step 1: Urban-qualified blocks

Step 2: Initial Urban Core

Step 3: Hops and jumps

Step 4: Enclaves and Additional Qualifying Situations

Block >= 20% impervious or with >= 425 units per sq. mile

Initial Urban Core with >= 500 units

• Hops (<0.5 mile) and up to 1 jump (0.51 to 1.5 mile)

Enclaves and Additional Qualifying Situations

Source: M. Walk, Texas A&M; P.C. Huang, Texas Demographic Center (2022)

Urban area steps visualized

Step 1: Urban-qualified blocks

Step 2: Initial Urban Core

Step 3: Hops and jumps

Step 5: Splitting of megalopolises

Step 4: Enclaves and Additional Qualifying Situations

Block >= 20% impervious or with >= 425 units per sq. mile

Initial Urban Core with >= 500 units

• Hops (<0.5 mile) and up to 1 jump (0.51 to 1.5 mile)

Enclaves and Additional Qualifying Situations

Source: M. Walk, Texas A&M; P.C. Huang, Texas Demographic Center (2022)

Census Urban Areas vs. Transportation Urbanized Areas?

If Census Urban Area has >= 50,000 population

• Automatically qualifies as Metro Statistical Area core
• And can qualify as a Transportation UZA, an area to be served by a Metro Planning Organization

Transportation UZA includes all of Census UA’s territory (and maybe a little more)

• State or MPO is allowed to slightly expand the UA, to smooth out and clarify boundaries for the area served
• UZA area must be approved by US DOT
• The official “urban population” of the UZA remains the Census UA population

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Metropolitan Council

What does all this imply for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Urban Area?

We have not yet seen the results

• We have not yet seen the results: Urban blocks and Urban Areas
• Resulting list of Urban Areas delayed to Dec. 2022
• There has been outward growth in the MSP region
• On the other hand… New criteria, limiting “jump” distance, implies rural residential area trimmed around the edges
• We don’t know yet where MSP Urban Area ends

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Metropolitan Council

Recap:

1. Metropolitan Council’s forecasts in the new planning cycle
2. Recap of 2020 Census
3. Census’s criteria for Urban Areas

What’s happening with Met Council forecasts? What’s happening with Census products?

Todd Graham, Principal Forecaster

August 10, 2022 metrocouncil.org/data/

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