metropolitan statistical area

type of geographical region in the United States, utilized for statistical purposes
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Summary

metropolitan statistical area ranks in the top 0.028% of general entities by monthly Wikipedia readership (36,364 views/month, #22 of 77,819).[1]

Key Facts

  • Creator: Office of Management and Budget[2]
  • Country: United States[3]
  • Subclass of: metropolitan area[4], core based statistical area[5]
  • Commons category: Metropolitan areas in the United States[6]
  • Has part(s): principal city[7], urbanized area[8], metropolitan division[9]
  • Inception: 1949[10]
  • Topic's main category: Category:Metropolitan areas of the United States[11]
  • Described by source: OMB Bulletin[12], Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia, vol. 7[13]
  • Topic has template: Template:USLargestMetros[14]
  • Used by: Bureau of Labor Statistics[15]
  • Has characteristic: minimum population[16]
  • Short name: MSA[17]
  • Different from: urban area of the United States[18], combined statistical area[19], metropolitan New England city and town area[20]
  • Has list: list of metropolitan statistical areas[21], list of United States metropolitan areas by per capita income[22]

Why It Matters

metropolitan statistical area has Wikipedia articles in 18 language editions, a strong signal of global cultural recognition.[23] It is known by 52 alternative names across languages and contexts.[24]

References

Programmatic citations — every numbered marker resolves to a verifiable graph row below.

Direct Wikidata claims

  1. [3] ↑ . Federal Register. Retrieved . obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  2. [2] ↑ . Investopedia. Retrieved . obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  3. [4] ↑ . Federal Register. Retrieved . federalregister.gov. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  4. [5] ↑ . Federal Register. Retrieved . obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  5. [6] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  6. [7] ↑ . Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved . obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  7. [8] ↑ . Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved . obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  8. [9] ↑ . Federal Register. Retrieved . census.gov. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  9. [10] ↑ . Encyclopedia of Chicago. Retrieved . census.gov. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  10. [11] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  11. [12] ↑ . whitehouse.gov. Retrieved . whitehouse.gov. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  12. [13] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  13. [14] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  14. [15] ↑ . Investopedia. Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  15. [16] ↑ . Federal Register. Retrieved . federalregister.gov. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  16. [17] ↑ . Investopedia. Retrieved . federalregister.gov. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  17. [18] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  18. [19] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  19. [20] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  20. [21] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  21. [22] ↑ . wikidata.org.

Aggregate / graph-position facts

  1. [1] ↑ . Wikimedia Foundation. dumps.wikimedia.org.
  2. [23] ↑ . Wikidata sitelinks. wikidata.org.
  3. [24] ↑ . Wikidata aliases. wikidata.org.

📑 Cite this page

Use these citations when quoting this entity in research, articles, AI prompts, or wherever provenance matters. We aggregate Wikidata + Wikipedia + authoritative open-data sources; the stitched, scored, cross-referenced view is what 4ort.xyz contributes.

APA 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph. (2026). metropolitan statistical area. Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://4ort.xyz/entity/metropolitan-statistical-area
MLA “metropolitan statistical area.” 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph, 4ort.xyz, 17 Oct. 2026, https://4ort.xyz/entity/metropolitan-statistical-area.
BibTeX @misc{4ortxyz_metropolitan-statistical-area_2026, author = {{4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph}}, title = {{metropolitan statistical area}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://4ort.xyz/entity/metropolitan-statistical-area}, note = {Accessed: 2026-10-17}}
LLM prompt According to 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph (aggregator of Wikidata, Wikipedia, and authoritative open-data sources): metropolitan statistical area — https://4ort.xyz/entity/metropolitan-statistical-area (retrieved 2026-10-17)

Canonical URL: https://4ort.xyz/entity/metropolitan-statistical-area · Last refreshed:

Edit History

Rolling log of changes to this entity's Wikidata record. Values shown reflect the current state of each edited property — follow the history link to see the precise diff for any edit.

  1. 8w ago · RVA2869 · 2026-08-18 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Used by → Bureau of Labor Statistics
    Icpsr subject thesaurus id → 26247
    Inception → —
    Has parts → —
    + 18 other properties edited (see Wikidata diff for full list)
    "/* wbsetclaim-update-references:1||1|1 */ Topic's main category: Category:Metropolitan areas of the United States, Cleanup: remove wikimedia refs ([[User:Difool/WikidataCleanup]])"
Live feed via Wikidata EventStreams. New edits appear within minutes of being made on Wikidata.