2012 county & metro area estimates released today

[Linus Van Pelt]

http://www.census.gov/popest/data/counties/totals/2012/index.html

[Linus Van Pelt]

BTW, has anyone calculated what the apportionment would be in 2020 if current trends continue? Would California gain a district?

Muon2 calculated the projections here from the 2012 estimates. Those earlier estimates are of the same date as these ones; it's just that they first get released only at the state level and now county-level data is added.

[Linus Van Pelt]

Great map, Sheliak.

And thanks for that explanation of metro areas, jimrtex. I'd wondered before why the census's metro areas often seem to include a layer of rural counties that wouldn't be counted by the everyday understanding of the metro area.

[Linus Van Pelt]

The Census Bureau starts by defining Urban Areas which are densely populated areas (500+ per square mile).  If 50% of a county population is in urban areas of at least 10,000 population; or the county has 5,000 persons in single urban area with more than 10,000 persons it is a "Central County".

Nice explanation; I knew it was based on commuting patterns but I wasn't clear on the specifics.

As an aside, it blows my mind that 500 people per square mile is considered "urban".  I have a hard time applying that adjective to areas ten times as dense sometimes.  (This is what happens when you grow up in a suburb whose density is roughly 9000 persons per square mile.)

Any area with 500 people per square mile has residential subdivisions in a town or suburb rather than farms.

I realize the purpose of distinguishing urban from suburban areas for some urban-planning or sociological purposes, but of course the census bureau will count suburbs as urban for purposes of defining what's in a metropolitan area.

[Linus Van Pelt]

I think the lesson here is that 500 people per square mile is a very unnatural density- the largest-lot subdivisions will be higher, anything purely rural (even including hamlets, and in wet climates) will be lower.  You need a hodgepodge to hit that mark. 

If you get fine-grained enough, down to the block, 500 people per square mile is too low I think.  But at a township level it's more defensible.

Yeah, that seems about right. I probably overstated things a bit earlier, now that I see the kind of areas you're discussing.