Metropolitan Divisions are created when a metropolitan statistical area containing a single core with a population of at least 2.5 million is subdivided to form smaller groupings of counties or equivalent entities. Not all metropolitan statistical areas with urbanized areas of this size will contain metropolitan divisions. A metropolitan division consists of one or more main counties that represent an employment center or centers, plus adjacent counties associated with the main 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.
Metropolitan Division National Shapefile Record Layout (Current)
tl_2013_us_metdiv.shp
Field
Length
Type
Description
CSAFP
3
String
Current combined statistical area code
CBSAFP
5
String
Current metropolitan statistical area/micropolitan statistical area code
METDIVFP
5
String
Current metropolitan division code
GEOID
10
String
Metropolitan division identifier; a concatenation of metropolitan statistical area/micropolitan statistical area code and metropolitan division code
NAME
100
String
Current metropolitan division name
NAMELSAD
100
String
Current name and the translated legal/statistical area description for metropolitan division
LSAD
2
String
Current legal/statistical area description code for metropolitan division
