Last-minute Trump administration proposal would define fewer areas as metropolitan; see county-level map

Proposed change in metropolitan county definition
Daily Yonder map; click here for the interactive version.

A proposal published in the Federal Register on the last full day of the Trump administration would change the definition of metropolitan areas, "potentially affecting the way scholars, policy makers, and federal funding agencies address rural needs," Tim Marema reports for The Daily Yonder. "The proposal, posted on Jan. 19, would raise the minimum population of cities that constitute the core of metropolitan statistical areas from 50,000 to 100,000."

Under the Office of Management and Budget's proposal, 251 counties in 144 metro areas would be reclassified as nonmetropolitan. The counties have about 18 million residents, so the non-metro population of the U.S., the broadest and bluntest definition of "rural," would expand nearly 40 percent, from 46 million to 64 million, Marema notes. The OMB study committee's recommendation said the newly non-metro areas would be classified as "micropolitan," a definition that now applies to those with cores cities of 10,000 to 49,999.

The proposal, if approved by the Biden administration, wouldn't take effect until 2023. "The potential impact of the change is complicated and multifaceted, according to the rural researchers the Daily Yonder contacted. None of the four researchers contacted knew about the change before it appeared in the Federal Register on January 19," Marema reports. "It’s unclear how seriously the new Biden administration will consider the proposal."