2007 Economic Census

Using American FactFinder

What geographies are available for economic data?

The economic programs in American FactFinder (AFF) cover a wide variety of geographies ranging from the nation as a whole to ZIP Codes.

Data are available by:

• nation, regions, and divisions
• states
• metropolitan and micropolitan areas
• counties
• places, cities, towns, and ZIP codes

Geographic Coverage by Economic Program

✓ - geography covered in economic program

Economic Program	U.S./States	Region & Division	Metro Areas	Counties	Places	ZIP Code	Get Data
Annual Survey of Manufacturers	✓
Commodity Flow Survey	✓	✓	✓
County Business Patterns	✓		✓	✓
Economic Census	✓	✓ (Construction only)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Nonemployer Statistics	✓		✓	✓
Survey of Business Owners	✓		✓	✓	✓
ZIP Code Business Patterns	✓					✓

Coverage on the National, Regional, and Division Levels

All economic programs in AFF publish at the national level. Additionally the Commodity Flow Survey publishes data at the regional and division levels. The Construction sector is the only economic census sector that publishes data at the regional level.

Geographic Definitions

• United States - Data published at this level only include the 50 states & the District of Columbia. Data do not include the island areas of American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands.
• Census Region - Groupings of states and the District of Columbia that subdivide the United States for the presentation of census data. There are four census regions—Northeast, Midwest, South, and West. Each of the four census regions is divided into two or more census divisions. Puerto Rico and the Island Areas are not part of any census region or census division.
• Census Divisions - Groupings of states and the District of Columbia that are subdivisions of the four census regions. There are nine census divisions. Puerto Rico and the Island Areas are not part of any census region or census division.

Coverage on the State Level

In the Economic Programs, the geographic concept of State can include the 50 states, Washington DC, Puerto Rico and other Island Areas, and Offshore Areas. The table below shows which programs publish data for specific state level geographies. Also, for this section assume Puerto Rico is included in the category Island Areas.

✓ - geography covered in economic program

Economic Census Program	Nation	States & DC	Island Areas	Offshore Areas
Annual Survey of Manufacturers	✓	✓
County Business Patterns	✓	✓	✓
Commodity Flow Survey	✓	✓
Economic Census	✓	✓	✓	✓
Nonemployer Statistics	✓	✓
Survey of Business Owners	✓	✓

Geographic Definition

• States - are the primary governmental divisions of the United States.

Coverage at the Metro Level

Coverage at the metro level includes data for Metropolitan & Micropolitan Areas, Metropolitan Divisions, Combined Statistical Areas, state-specific parts of Metropolitan Areas, and state-specific parts of Combined Statistical Areas.

✓ - geography covered in economic program

Economic Census Program	Metro & Micropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA)	Parts of MSA	Metropolitian Division	Combined Statistical Area (CSA)	Parts of CSA	Areas not in a Statistical Area
Economic Census	✓		✓	✓		✓
Commodity Flow Survey			✓		✓
County Business Patterns	✓					✓
Nonemployer Statistics	✓	✓		✓	✓
Survey of Business Owners	✓		✓	✓	✓

Geographic Definitions

• Metropolitan Statistical Area - Statistical areas with at least one urbanized area that has a population of at least 50,000. The Metropolitan Statistical Area comprises the central county or counties or equivalent entities containing the core, plus adjacent outlying counties having a high degree of social and economic integration with the central county or counties as measured through commuting.
• Micropolitan Statistical Areas - Statistical areas with at least one urban cluster that has a population of at least 10,000 but less than 50,000. The Micropolitan Statistical Area comprises the central county or counties or equivalent entities containing the core, plus adjacent outlying counties having a high degree of social and economic integration with the central county or counties as measured through commuting.
• Metropolitan Division - Smaller groupings of counties or equivalent entities defined within a metropolitan statistical area containing a single core with a population of at least 2.5 million. Not all metropolitan statistical areas with urbanized areas of this size will contain metropolitan divisions. A metropolitan division consists of one or more main/secondary counties that represent an employment center or centers, plus adjacent counties associated with the main/secondary county or counties through commuting ties. Because metropolitan divisions represent subdivisions of larger metropolitan statistical areas, it is not appropriate to rank or compare metropolitan divisions with metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas. It would be appropriate to rank and compare metropolitan divisions.
• Combined Statistical Areas - Consists of two or more adjacent Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) that have substantial employment interchange. The CBSAs that combine to create a CSA retain separate identities within the larger CSA. Because CSAs represent groupings of metropolitan and/or micropolitan statistical areas, they should not be ranked or compared with individual metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas.
• Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSA) - Consists of the county or counties or equivalent entities associated with at least one core (urbanized area or urban cluster) of at least 10,000 people, plus adjacent counties having a high degree of social and economic integration with the core as measured through commuting ties with the counties associated with the core. The general concept of a CBSA is that of a core area containing a substantial population nucleus, together with adjacent communities having a high degree of economic and social integration with that core. The term "core based statistical area" became effective in 2003 and refers collectively to metropolitan statistical areas and micropolitan statistical areas. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defines CBSAs to provide a nationally consistent set of geographic entities for the United States and Puerto Rico for use in tabulating and presenting statistical data.
• Areas Not in a Statistical Area - A geographic concept specific to the Economic Programs. This is a summation of areas within a state that are not in one of the statistical areas mentioned in this section. This geographic entity exists in 46 states.

County

All available programs but Annual Survey of Manufactures publish data at the County level. If the program publishes data for the Island Areas, they will publish at the County level for them.

Geographic Definition

• County - The primary legal divisions of most states are termed counties. In Louisiana, these divisions are known as parishes. In Alaska, which has no counties, the equivalent entities are the organized boroughs, city and boroughs, municipalities, and census areas; the latter of which are delineated cooperatively for statistical purposes by the state of Alaska and the Census Bureau. In four states (Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, and Virginia), there are one or more incorporated places that are independent of any county organization and thus constitute primary divisions of their states. These incorporated places are known as independent cities and are treated as equivalent entities for purposes of data presentation. The District of Columbia and Guam have no primary divisions, and each area is considered an equivalent entity for purposes of data presentation. All of the counties in Connecticut and Rhode Island and nine counties in Massachusetts were dissolved as functioning governmental entities; however, the Census Bureau continues to present data for these historical entities in order to provide comparable geographic units at the county level of the geographic hierarchy for these states and represents them as nonfunctioning legal entities in data products. The Census Bureau treats the following entities as equivalents of counties for purposes of data presentation: municipios in Puerto Rico, districts and islands in American Samoa, municipalities in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and islands in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Place and other County Parts

Some Economic Programs publish data for parts of a County. This includes Place, Parts of places that cross county boundaries, Consolidated Cities, and ZIP Codes.

✓ - geography covered in economic program

Economic Census Program	Place	Place part	Consolidated City	ZIP Code
County Business Patterns				✓
Economic Census	✓	✓	✓	✓
Survey of Business Owners	✓

Geographic Definitions

• Economic Place - A geographic concept for the Economic Census and Survey of Business owners, defined as data for:
  • Incorporated Places (cities, towns, villages and boroughs) with at least 5,000 inhabitants or reported at least 5,000 jobs as of the 2000 census.
  • Unincorporated Places (Census Designated Places or CDP) with 5,000 or more inhabitants.
  • Independent Cities in Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, and Virginia (e.g. St. Louis, MO or Baltimore, MD) that are independent of any county organizations. These cities are also published at the county level.
  • Any Place (Incorporated and Unincorporated) that does not meet these requirements are included in the published Balance of County, State (e.g. Balance of Burlington County, NJ) data.
• Consolidated City - A consolidated government is a unit of local government for which the functions of an incorporated place and its county or minor civil division (MCD) have merged. This action results in both the primary incorporated place and the county or MCD continuing to exist as legal entities, even though the county or MCD performs few or no governmental functions and has few or no elected officials. Where this occurs—and where one or more other incorporated places in the county or MCD continue to function as separate governments, even though they have been included in the consolidated government—the primary incorporated place is referred to as a consolidated city. The Census Bureau classifies the separately incorporated places within the consolidated city as place entities and creates a separate place (balance) record for the portion of the consolidated city not within any other place.
• ZIP Code - ZIP Codes are administrative entities of the U.S. Postal Service. As such:
  • They do not coincide with the Census Bureau's geographic or political areas.
  • They change according to postal requirements.
  • They do not have specific boundaries.
  • Their implied boundaries do not necessarily follow clearly identifiable physical features.

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