A "Micropolis" ("mini-city") is a demographics term that gained currency in the 1990s to describe growing population centers in the United States that are far removed from a large city, even 100 miles (160 km) or more. They are drawing refugees both from rural America and suburbia, offering some of the cultural attractions and conveniences of towns without all the expenses and liabilities of urban sprawl. Telecommuting and Internet mail-ordering can make it easier to organize trade and commerce from an isolated population center. Employers find it easier to open a factory or an office park in these towns, which have plenty of developable land and lower real estate costs than the suburbs or traditional metropolitan areas. Demographics comprises selected characteristics of a population (age and income distribution and trends, mobility, educational attainment, home ownership and employment status, for instance) for purposes of social studies. ... The term suburbia is frequently used to encapsulate the concept of suburbs as oddly picturesque slices of tract-home nuclear family life that harbour forces destructive of natural human impulses towards true community and concerns of communal welfare. ... Urban sprawl (also called suburban sprawl and occasionally Los Angelization) describes the growth of a metropolitan area, particularly the suburbs, over a large area. ... Telecommuting is a term used in the USA, coined by Jack Nilles to describe a work arrangement in which employees enjoy flexibility in work place and time (within certain limits). ...
In mid-2003 the US Census Bureau officially recognized the new designation of "micropolitan" areas, defining them as having at least one town of 10,000 to 49,999 people, and with few of its residents commuting outside the area. The Bureau identified 567 such "micropolises" in the continental U.S. More than 28 million people, or one in 10 Americans, reside in a micropolis, which spreads around a somewhat diffuse core. The United States Census Bureau (officially Bureau of the Census) is a part of the United States Department of Commerce. ...
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The Real Estate Journal analyzes the micropolis market (http://www.realestatejournal.com/relocation/relocation/20040823-mccarthy.html)
These are referred to as "Metropolitan StatisticalAreas" (MSAs) and "Combined StatisticalAreas." An earlier version of the MSA was the "Standard Metropolitan StatisticalArea" (SMSA).
As of November 2003, there is now an additional classification, that of a “Metropolitan Division.” The term metropolitan division is used to refer to a county or group of counties within a metropolitan statisticalarea that has a population core of at least 2.5 million.
While a metropolitan division is a subdivision of a larger metropolitan statisticalarea, it often functions as a distinct social, economic, and cultural area within the larger region.
They are drawing migrants both from rural America and from suburban areas, offering some of the cultural attractions and conveniences of towns without all the expenses and liabilities of urban sprawl.
Micropolitan cities do not have the economic or political importance of large cities, but are nevertheless significant centers of population and production, drawing workers and shoppers from a wide local area.
The largest of the areas, the one whose core city is Torrington, Connecticut, had a population in excess of 180,000 in 2000; Torrington's population in that year's census was only 35,202.
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