The metropolitan area of residence is obtained from the householdâs final CPS interview. Since the ATUS interview is conducted 2-5 months after the final CPS interview, it is necessary to consult and to determine the correct metropolitan area codes for respondents in the 2004, 2014, and 2025 ATUS samples. Observations in each other year fall within a single code vintage. For a list of metropolitan areas identified and the corresponding codes, consult the links below for the appropriate time period based on the household's final CPS interview (YEAR_CPS8 and MONTH_CPS8):
2002 - April 2004
May 2004 - April 2014
May 2014 - forward
METFIPS Specific Variable Codes
99998 = Unidentified or nonmetropolitan
99999 = Missing data
Note that some metropolitan areas are not available in all months of a time period.
Description
METFIPS gives the original (unrecoded) CPS codes for the respondent's metropolitan area of residence. A metropolitan area, or metro area, is a region consisting of a large urban core together with surrounding communities that have a high degree of economic and social integration with the urban core. Metro areas are defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which occasionally makes significant changes to its protocols and regularly revises the delineations of metro areas to reflect current population distributions and commuting flows. Metro areas can cross state lines, and they are county-based except in New England. (Prior to the introduction of the 2003 OMB protocols, metro areas in New England were based on towns and cities. Now all official metro areas are county-based, but the CPS continues to use special town-based definitions for New England, which the OMB calls New England City and Town Areas, or NECTAs). METFIPS codes change over time and users must use the corresponding code list based on the timing of the household's final CPS interview (YEAR_CPS8 and MONTH_CPS8).
See also (METRO), which identifies whether a household resided in a metro area and specifically whether it resided in a central/principal city of a metro area. For all samples, IPUMS ATUS includes a separate variable, METAREA, which aimed to apply a consistent coding scheme across all samples based on the FIPS codes in use with the 1990 census.
Not all metropolitan areas are identified: see under "Codes" for more information. Note also that some component counties are not included in the CPS sample of households in certain metropolitan areas. See the "Specific Metropolitan Identifiers" Appendix of the CPS technical documentation for more information on whether a specific metropolitan area sample has excluded components. For more information on the definitions and components of metropolitan areas over time, see the Census Bureau website; for the current metropolitan area definitions, see here.
Note that the Census Bureau warns: "One set of estimates that can be produced from ATUS microdata files should be treated with caution. These are estimates for individual metropolitan areas. Although estimates for the larger areas such as New York, Los Angeles, and so forth, should be fairly accurate and valid for a multitude of uses, estimates for the smaller metropolitan areas (those with populations under 500,000) should be used with caution because of the relatively large sampling variability associated with these estimates."
Comparability
Beginning in May 2004, New England metropolitan areas are defined using New England City and Town Area (NECTA) definitions. The codes for these areas correspond to NECTA codes, not to the metropolitan area (CBSA) FIPS code. See under the "Codes" tab for more details on the specific codes over time.
In January 2023, the Census Bureau made a significant change to the way confidentiality is protected for individuals in small geographic areas. Geography is now partially synthesized for areas with a population below the threshold of 100,000. This change will be phased in as new respondents enter the CPS, beginning with month-in-sample 1 in January 2023. In the ATUS data, this change will be evident beginning with the 2024 sample. These changes affect the following geographic variables: METFIPS, COUNTY, and METRO. For more information, see the Census Bureau's 2023 Current Population Survey User Note.
Universe
- CPS households.
Availability
- 2003-2024
