United States micropolitan areas, as defined by the Census Bureau and the Office of Management and Budget, are areas in the United States based around a core city or town with a population of 10,000 to 49,999. The micropolitan area designation was created in 2003. Like the better-known metropolitan area, this is an economic and demographic measurement, independent of political jurisdictions. The bureau identified 578 such areas in the nation. The United States Census Bureau (officially Bureau of the Census) is a part of the United States Department of Commerce. ... The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is a body within the Executive Office of the President of the United States which is tasked with coordinating United States Federal agencies. ... Jump to: navigation, search 2003(MMIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... In the United States, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has produced a formal definition of metropolitan areas, which are organized around county boundaries. ...

The term gained currency in the 1990s to describe growing population centers in the United States that are removed from larger cities, in some cases 100 miles (160 km) or more. They are drawing refugees 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. 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. 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) is a pejorative term for the expansive, often explosive and sometimes reckless, growth of a metropolitan area, traditionally suburbs (or exurbs) over a large area. ... Telecommuting is a work arrangement in which employees enjoy flexibility in working location and hours (within limits). ...

Micropolitan towns 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. Because the designation is based on the core town's population and not on that of the whole area, some micropolitan areas are actually larger than some metropolitan areas. 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. Torrington is the largest city in Litchfield County, Connecticut. ...

Many such areas have dynamic rates of growth; however, all micropolitan areas combined account for about 10% of the population. Demographers do not expect this precentage to increase greatly in the foreseeable future.

External links

• Summary of the micropolitan designation
• List of Micropolitan Statistical Areas, U.S. Census Bureau
• Official government document on statistical areas definitions
• USA Today article on micropolitans in the economy
• USA Today article on micropolitans in politics
• The Real Estate Journal analysis of the micropolis market
• The uvScene: a blog devoted to the Upper Valley micropolitan region of NH/VT.