This database includes several tables highlighting the hierarchical nature of the geographic coding systems used by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for metropolitan areas, with reference to a series of other geographic tables maintained by the Census Bureau and a cross-reference table. If you prefer a map gateway into the database, try here.
Under the OMB Metro Areas pulldown menu:
Consolidated Statistical Areas lists all the CSAs as of OMB's 2023 definitions
Core Based Statistical Areas lists all CBSA metropolitan and micropolitan areas as of OMB's 2023 definition and the CSAs, if any, in which they are embedded
Consolidated New England City and Town Areas and NECTAs have been removed per OMB decision in 2023.
Under the Census Geographies pulldown:
Region lists the highest-level Census regions
Divisions lists Census divisions and the regions in which they are embedded
State lists the codes for each state and territory
Metro Divisions lists the divisions into which certain CBSAs are divided by county
County lists all counties and county-equivalents, the CSA and CBSA in which they are embedded, if any, their status as central or outlying in those regions, and a Google maps link. Current as of 2015 Gazeteer updated through 2022. USDA/ERS classifications are due for updates in 2023 or 2024.
County Subdivision lists all county subdivisions, the counties within which they are embedded, and their "functional status" code as assigned by the Census in 2023. Metro/non-metro and economic dependency classifications per ERS are current as of 2015.
Place lists all incorporated places, their counties, their types, the metro areas within which they are embedded if any, whether they are a principal city within those metro areas, and a Google maps link. Updated as of 2022. Important change: All Census Designated Places have been dropped from this table, except the small handful that are considered principal cities of their CBSAs. It is now simply too difficult to keep up with the many changes that are made each year in CDPs and manually look up the counties in which they are embedded. If I can figure out a way to automate this process (I can do this only for CDPs that are "urban areas" but not for non-urban ones), I will restore those rows to the table.
Urban areas and the cross reference with places have been removed because they often cross-reference CDPs that are no longer listed.
Census Tracts have been dropped from this database as of 2023. This was not a useful feature.
Instructions
Here are the principal views for this database:
Each table in the left-hand column opens in summary view:
By default the table sorts by the first column but you can click on any column title to change the sort order.
The summary view shows only a few rows at a time, but use the pager tool to gain access to the rest.
This is also the view you will see after conducting a search.
Clicking the paper icon on the leftmost column of the summary table opens a detail view for the record clicked.
The "previous/next" links will take you through any summary table, whether the full dataset or the result of a search.
In some cases, the detail view may reveal a field not included in the summary view. For example, the detail view for State lists quite a number of attributes for each state that are not in the summary table.
For tables listing specific geographic areas, the detail view also includes a list of those codes at one level of greater specificity that belong to this code. For example the detail view for a CBSA indicates which counties are in that CBSA, and the detail view for a County indicates which places are in that County.
For the metro area and county tables, the detail view also shows which colleges and universities can be found in that area.
You can conduct a "quick search" by one or two fields from the summary view. However, you can also click the search button to open a full-featured search:
You can enter one or more fields. Don't overdetermine a search.
By default, the search is conducted as a Boolean AND of terms in any field but you can change this to Boolean OR in the dropdown.
Fields with "equals," "starts with," or "contains" require a text entry. You may use Boolean AND or OR within these fields.
Be sure to "clear" the search to get back to the full summary listing.
