What percentage of each state’s population lives in its largest metro area?
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A long time ago, I made a map about the percentage of each US state’s population living in its largest metro area. That map was one of my most popular early maps. Sadly, it did contain two errors. For some reason I never got around to redo that map and correct those errors.
In the meantime, the results of the 2020 US Census came out. I also made a similar map of Europe and Asia recently. A good opportunity to correct my mistakes and make an updated version of the map.
I calculated these percentages by taking the population of the largest Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and divide them by the state population. I only included the population of the MSA within said state. The New York-Newark-Jersey City MSA for instance, covers multiple states. For the New Jersey calculation, I only included the part of the New York-Newark-Jersey City MSA that is within the state of New Jersey.
Another important criteria, is that the centre or cities named in the MSA name, have to be in said state. The New York-Newark-Jersey City MSA consist of one city in New York state and two in New Jersey. In the end, this criteria only affected one state: New Hampshire. The Boston-Cambridge-Newton MSA stretches all the way from Massachusetts into New Hampshire. The New Hampshire population of the Boston-Cambridge-Newton MSA is slightly larger than the population of the Manchester-Nashua MSA. However, Boston, Cambridge and Newton are all in Massachusetts, meaning that the centre and name of this MSA doesn’t contain any New Hampshire city.
As you can see, very little has changed for most states. I have corrected the two errors I made in the previous map. In the previous map, I picked the Dover MSA as the largest metro area in Delaware. This is not correct, it’s the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington MSA. For Connecticut, I picked Bridgeport-Stamford, but it’s actually the Hartford MSA that’s the largest.
Apart from the previous 2 errors, another state’s largest metro area is different from the previous map: South Carolina. Previously, Columbia was the largest metro area. But now it’s Greenville.
The changes in percentages compared to the previous map can be either due to population changes or changes in the counties that are includes in the MSA or changes in the county borders. A notable example is Rhode Island, where now the whole state is part of the Providence MSA. Resulting in an increase from 98% to 100%.
Apart from Rhode Island, New Jersey (74%), Nevada (73%) and Hawaii (70%) are the only other states where 70% or more of its population live in the state’s largest metro area.
The lowest rates can be found in West Virginia (14%), Montana (17%), Wyoming (17%), Ohio (18%) and South Carolina (18%). The only states where less than 20% of its population lives in its largest metro area.
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