Combined Statistical Areas by Area in Square Miles

[dimondpark]

I was looking at the land area of CSAs and found the table at the Census Bureau website.

Here are CSAs with 5,000+ square miles.

Here is a link to a map: https://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/metroarea/us_wall/Jul2023/CSA_WallMap_Jul2023.pdf

Area
in
Sq Miles-Combined Statistical Area
33,971---Los Angeles-Long Beach
26,073---Las Vegas-Henderson
25,136---Boise City-Mountain Home-Ontario
24,762---Salt Lake City-Provo-Orem
23,811---Albuquerque-Santa Fe-Los Alamos
19,326---Phoenix-Mesa
16,290---Dallas-Ft Worth
15,126---Reno-Carson City-Gardnerville Ranchos
13,330---Atlanta-Athens-Sandy Springs
13,199---Washington-Baltimore-Arlington
13,056---Denver-Aurora-Greeley
12,715---Portland-Vancouver-Salem
12,406---Houston-Pasadena
12,288---Seattle-Tacoma
11,994---San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland
11,281---New York-Newark
11,200---Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City
11,081---Duluth-Grand Rapids
10,972---Minneapolis-St Paul
10,634---Chicago-Naperville
10,424---Tucson-Nogales
9,474----San Antonio-New Braunfels-Kerrville
9,623----Idaho Falls-Rexburg-Blackfoot
9,486----Fresno-Hanford-Corcoran
9,392----El Paso-Las Cruces
9,189----Boston-Worcester-Providence
8,971----Columbus-Marion-Zanesville
8,887----St Louis-St Charles-Farmington
8,876----Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro
8,604----Rapid City-Spearfish
8,536----Charlotte-Concord
8,437----Miami-Port St Lucie-Ft Lauderdale
7,811----Indianapolis-Carmel-Muncie
7,720----Pittsburgh-Weirton-Steubenville
7,664----Cleveland-Akron-Canton
7,496----Tulsa-Bartlesville-Muskogee
7,434----Orlando-Lakeland-Daytona
7,402----Birmingham-Cullman-Talladega
7,285----Sacramento-Roseville
7,261----Lubbock-Plainview
7,188----Jackson-Vicksburg-Brookhaven
6,724----Redding-Red Bluff
6,588----Little Rock-North Little Rock
6,534----Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor
6,299----Oklahoma City-Shawnee
6,104----Columbia-Sumter-Orangeburg
6,160----Memphis-Clarksdale-Forrest City
6,043----Albany-Schenectady
6,038----Amarillo-Borger
5,997----Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson
5,881----Des Moines-West Des Moines-Ames
5,602----Edwards-Rifle
5,507----Chattanooga-Cleveland-Dalton
5,479----Spokane-Spokane Valley-Coeur d'Alene
5,273----Wichita-Arkansas City-Winfield
5,271----Charleston-Huntington-Ashland
5,158----Baton Rouge-Hammond
5,136----Columbia-Jefferson City-Moberly
5,126----Grand Rapids-Wyoming

[iheartthed]

I had no idea until just now that there's only an 8 mile gap between the Cleveland and Detroit CSAs.

As overly broad as these CSAs seem, Toledo should be part of the Detroit CSA. It seems very arbitrary to not include it.

[dimondpark]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I had no idea until just now that there's only an 8 mile gap between the Cleveland and Detroit CSAs.

As overly broad as these CSAs seem, Toledo should be part of the Detroit CSA. It seems very arbitrary to not include it.

tell me about it.

In 2023, the OMB removed Sonoma County from the Bay Area CSA, which is absolutely outrageous--how the hell are Modesto and Merced part of the Bay Area but Sonoma County isn't? Traffic between Sonoma and Marin on the 101 is terrible and they even recently opened a commuter rail between the two counties, but I digress.

11,994 sq miles---San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland
+1,768 sq miles--Sonoma County
13,762 sq miles Total

[Yuri]

Sonoma County is one of the 9-countiy Bay Area. It's weird not being part of San Francisco MSA, let alone the CSA.

[Docere]

The Los Angeles CSA is more than 4 times the size of Massachusetts.

[TWAK]

Originally Posted by dimondpark

tell me about it.

In 2023, the OMB removed Sonoma County from the Bay Area CSA, which is absolutely outrageous--how the hell are Modesto and Merced part of the Bay Area but Sonoma County isn't? Traffic between Sonoma and Marin on the 101 is terrible and they even recently opened a commuter rail between the two counties, but I digress.

11,994 sq miles---San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland
+1,768 sq miles--Sonoma County
13,762 sq miles Total

SMART terminates at the ferry to SF and the county touches San Pablo Bay...
Let's get a waiver or something if it doesn't have the exact criteria to meet being a part of the Bay Area CSA.

[Velvet_Highground]

I would argue that the entire Detroit beltway area be included in a Detroit CSA. I-69 from Port Huron to Lansing US-127 south to Jackson and US-223 to Toledo.

It’s an overreach but I feel like Detroit has a greater presence in its local region than some other cities due to the restrictive nature of the mitten’s geography.

That is strange leaving out Sonoma County.

[Crawford]

I'm amazed the Cleveland and Detroit CSAs almost touch. That stretch from Sandusky to Toledo feels like an empty wasteland. No settlement of note. You leave Toledo and it goes right to swampy nothing.

[MonkeyRonin]

These "metros" are the size of entire European countries.

[streetscaper]

Originally Posted by Docere

The Los Angeles CSA is more than 4 times the size of Massachusetts.

and larger than the land area of Maine...

At which point it exemplifies the absurdity of CSAs

[xzmattzx]

Almost 34,000 square miles is huge. That is almost the size of Indiana's land area. That's also almost half the size of Missouri's land area.

These CSAs are getting out of hand. I also have a bone to pick about MSAs, although I got laughed at for my thoughts on that back in the day.

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by Docere

The Los Angeles CSA is more than 4 times the size of Massachusetts.

Its almost all desert and mountains though. Even LA county is. The area where people actually live is like 1/15 of that or something.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by Docere

The Los Angeles CSA is more than 4 times the size of Massachusetts.

I understand the criticisms of CSAs as entities, and I think the shift to work-at-home is going to make a big impact on them going forward.

That said, CSAs are comprised of counties. In the older eastern parts of the country, counties are bite-sized and work fairly well in terms of counting metropolitan populations. However, that gets tested when we look at Western counties, which are often enormous.

There is a reason many Western counties are enormous--generally, there is a lot of land, and yet people only live in a small portion of that land. Why bother creating a separate county, or many counties, out of unpopulated regions? More specifically, the populated parts of the Los Angeles-Long Beach CSA are a fraction of its enormous land area. You could cut out 90% of the land area and keep the same overall population. I've seen Steely Dan make the same point about the Chicago CSA--the vast outer areas are essentially irrelevant to the core region's population and economy. It's the same in greater Los Angeles, just super-sized.

[xzmattzx]

Originally Posted by craigs

I understand the criticisms of CSAs as entities, and I think the shift to work-at-home is going to make a big impact on them going forward.

That said, CSAs are comprised of counties. In the older eastern parts of the country, counties are bite-sized and work fairly well in terms of counting metropolitan populations. However, that gets tested when we look at Western counties, which are often enormous.

There is a reason many Western counties are enormous--generally, there is a lot of land, and yet people only live in a small portion of that land. Why bother creating a separate county, or many counties, out of unpopulated regions? More specifically, the populated parts of the Los Angeles-Long Beach CSA are a fraction of its enormous land area. You could cut out 90% of the land area and keep the same overall population. I've seen Steely Dan make the same point about the Chicago CSA--the vast outer areas are essentially irrelevant to the core region's population and economy. It's the same in greater Los Angeles, just super-sized.

All of that is true, but it is still ridiculous.

By the way, the largest CSA on the east coast, Atlanta, is half the size of West Virginia.

[streetscaper]

Originally Posted by craigs

I understand the criticisms of CSAs as entities, and I think the shift to work-at-home is going to make a big impact on them going forward.

That said, CSAs are comprised of counties. In the older eastern parts of the country, counties are bite-sized and work fairly well in terms of counting metropolitan populations. However, that gets tested when we look at Western counties, which are often enormous.

There is a reason many Western counties are enormous--generally, there is a lot of land, and yet people only live in a small portion of that land. Why bother creating a separate county, or many counties, out of unpopulated regions? More specifically, the populated parts of the Los Angeles-Long Beach CSA are a fraction of its enormous land area. You could cut out 90% of the land area and keep the same overall population. I've seen Steely Dan make the same point about the Chicago CSA--the vast outer areas are essentially irrelevant to the core region's population and economy. It's the same in greater Los Angeles, just super-sized.

Understood... but then maybe CSAs shouldn't be based on counties then

[dimondpark]

Originally Posted by streetscaper

Understood... but then maybe CSAs shouldn't be based on counties then

CSAs aren't based on counties, they are based on Metro Areas.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by craigs

I've seen Steely Dan make the same point about the Chicago CSA--the vast outer areas are essentially irrelevant to the core region's population and economy.

And it's not just the CSA, even the vast majority of Chicago's MSA is literally cornfields.

Counties are an awfully awkward unit to measure these kinds of things, but they make the math super easy, so....... we live with this phenomenally imperfect kludge.

UA is light years more meaningful for land areas.

[LuluBobo]

LA CSA is bigger than Netherlands and Belgium and Luxembourg combined.

31.4 million people combined in those three countries too.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I had no idea until just now that there's only an 8 mile gap between the Cleveland and Detroit CSAs.

As overly broad as these CSAs seem, Toledo should be part of the Detroit CSA. It seems very arbitrary to not include it.

I don't see any other CSA pairs with such a small gap in between. Either a CSA is bordered by another CSA or it is separated by a rural county with a large-ish land area. Lucas County, OH isn't rural (nor is it that large) so it seems a little weird that they have not included it in a CSA.

[streetscaper]

Originally Posted by dimondpark

CSAs aren't based on counties, they are based on Metro Areas.

sure, but the smallest unit that can be added is a county, no?

that doesn't seem like a great thing at all... feels quite meaningless honestly