Arizona's Statistical Areas: Employment and Population

By Valorie H. Rice and Marshall J. Vest

As defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Arizona now has six Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and five Micropolitan Statistical areas.  Arizona’s two largest metro areas combined (Phoenix and Tucson) account for 86% of the state’s nonfarm jobs and 82% of total population (table 1).

The federal government publishes much more detailed data, for example industry level employment data, for statistical areas than it does for counties.  In Arizona, seven of its 15 counties are in metro- areas and six more counties are in micro- areas.  Only two counties – Apache and La Paz – aren’t included in a metro- or micro- statistical area.  EBR’s forecasting efforts are focused on the two largest metro areas, where nearly all of Arizona’s people and economic activity are located.

Population estimates

The Census Bureau released 2009 population estimates for counties and metro areas at the end of March.  The 2010 Census data will be released next spring meaning these are the last population estimates to use the 2000 Census as base.  The 2011 estimates will be the first to use 2010 data as the base.

Ranking Metropolitan and Micropolitan Areas by Population

Arizona has six metropolitan areas: Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, Tucson, Prescott, Yuma, Lake Havasu City-Kingman, and Flagstaff; and five micropolitan areas: Sierra Vista-Douglas, Show Low, Payson, Safford and Nogales.  The difference between metropolitan areas and micropolitan areas is the size of the “core urban area” or major town within the county or counties they encompass.   For metropolitan areas the core urban area is 50,000 or larger and for micropolitan areas the core urban area is at least 10,000 but less than 50,000.  They can include one or more counties, and in some cases, states.  In Arizona, the Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale Metropolitan Area includes both Maricopa and Pinal counties and the Safford Micropolitan Area includes both Graham and Greenlee counties.  There are 366 metropolitan areas and 574 micropolitan areas in the United States as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB). 

Table 2 shows the largest metropolitan and micropolitan areas for 2009 including the rankings for Arizona (which mostly fall far down the list).  You will notice that there is a good deal of overlap between the population of metropolitan and micropolitan areas due to the size of the surrounding counties.  For example, in Arizona, the Sierra Vista-Douglas Micropolitan Area is very near the size of the Flagstaff Metropolitan Area, but there is a larger portion of population in Cochise County outside of Sierra Vista (which is still slightly smaller than 50,000) as compared to the population of Coconino County outside of Flagstaff itself.

Table 2: Estimates of Population for Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas and Rankings: July1, 2009

County Estimates

Metropolitan statistical areas are often comprised of more than one county, but in the case of Arizona most encompass only one county. County level estimate still provide important information about rural areas and communities. Most Arizona counties saw a modest increase in population from 2008 to 2009, though three (Gila, Greenlee and Mohave) actually saw a slight decrease.  Greenlee was the only county to lose population between 2000 and 2009.   Apache, Gila and La Paz had single digit increases over the nine year period while other counties saw substantial cumulative growth, especially Pinal (table 3).

Pinal County showed the largest gain in population for the last year as well as over the last nine years.  In fact, with an 89.7% increase Pinal County ranked as the second fastest growing county in the United States from 2000 to 2009 behind Kendall County, IL (91.2%).  No other Arizona county ranked among the top 100 fastest growing counties.  Arizona’s two largest counties, Maricopa and Pima, did however rank among the 100 largest counties in the United States for 2009 coming in 4th and 41st, respectively.  The three largest counties in the US in 2009 were Los Angeles County, CA; Cook County, IL (Chicago); and Harris County, TX (Houston).

For additional information, please contact the Economic and Business Research Center.