Yeah MSAs I prefer - CMSAs are just too ridiculously large. American MSAs are already a tad exaggerated in some cases. Why are we so lazy that everything has to be done by county?
I've always wondered that too...at minimum, why not urban areas within the county? We already have that designation. Privacy concerns, laze, what?
The Census makes estimates based on counties, county subdivisions and places. In order to estimate the pop in a MSA they have to assemble some combination that is stable for the decade. Places grow in area and are tougher to use for that purpose. Urban areas would make sense, but they change each year of the decade and the estimates are less accurate. They could break it down to county subdivisions and be as accurate in the estimate as with counties.
