We're proud to offer a simple, accurate and up-to-date database of United States metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). We've built it from the ground up using authoritative sources such as the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and FBI.
Databases | Basic | Pro | Comprehensive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial use | Allowed | Allowed | Allowed |
| File format | CSV, Excel | CSV, Excel, SQL | CSV, Excel, SQL, GeoJSON |
| All Census-recognized metro areas | All except in US territories | Yes | Yes |
| Number of entries | 384 | 393 | 393 |
| Attribution | Required | Not required | Not required |
| Fields (listed below) | Basic fields | More fields | All fields |
| Future updates | Not guaranteed | Included for 12 months | Included for 24 months |
| License | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 | Permissive, no redistribution | Permissive, no redistribution |
| Refund policy | N/A | 30-day guarantee | 30-day guarantee |
| One-time fee | Free | $99 | $199 |
| Buy Now! | Buy Now! |
Here is a sample of rows from the database with some commonly used fields:
*income is shortened for income_household_median
| fieldname | description | Basic | Pro | Comp. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
metro_fips |
The 5-digit FIPS code of the metro area (e.g. 16980). | |||
metro |
The short name of the metro area (e.g. Chicago). | |||
metro_ascii |
metro as an ASCII string (e.g. Chicago). |
|||
metro_full |
The full name of the metro area (e.g. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI Metro Area). | |||
county_name |
The name of the largest county in the metro area (e.g. Cook). | |||
county_fips |
The 5-digit FIPS code of the largest county in the metro area (e.g. 17031). | |||
state_id |
The state or territory's USPS postal abbreviation (e.g. IL). | |||
state_name |
The name of the state or territory (e.g. Illinois). | |||
lat |
The latitude of the metro area (e.g. 41.8781). | |||
lng |
The longitude of the metro area (e.g. -87.6298). | |||
population |
An estimate of the metro area's population (e.g. 9,618,502). | |||
city_principal |
The name of the principal city in the metro area (e.g. Chicago). | |||
city_principal_id |
The unique ID of the principal city (e.g. 1840012484). | |||
density |
The estimated population per square kilometer (e.g. 471.73). | |||
timezone |
The metro area's primary timezone in the tz database format (e.g. America/Chicago). | |||
age_median |
The median age of residents in the metro area (e.g. 37.8). | |||
age_under_10 |
The percentage of residents under 10 years old. | |||
age_10_to_19 |
The percentage of residents aged 10-19. | |||
age_20s |
The percentage of residents in their 20s. | |||
age_30s |
The percentage of residents in their 30s. | |||
age_40s |
The percentage of residents in their 40s. | |||
age_50s |
The percentage of residents in their 50s. | |||
age_60s |
The percentage of residents in their 60s. | |||
age_70s |
The percentage of residents in their 70s. | |||
age_over_80 |
The percentage of residents over 80 years old. | |||
male |
The percentage of residents who report being male (e.g. 49.1). | |||
female |
The percentage of residents who report being female (e.g. 50.9). | |||
married |
The percentage of residents who report being married (e.g. 47.2). | |||
divorced |
The percentage of residents who report being divorced. | |||
never_married |
The percentage of residents who have never been married. | |||
widowed |
The percentage of residents who report being widowed. | |||
family_size |
The average size of resident families (e.g. 3.22). | |||
family_dual_income |
The percentage of families with dual income earners. | |||
income_household_median |
Median household income in USD (e.g. 75,379). | |||
income_household_under_5 |
Percentage of households earning under $5,000. | |||
income_household_5_to_10 |
Percentage of households earning $5,000-$10,000. | |||
income_household_10_to_15 |
Percentage of households earning $10,000-$15,000. | |||
income_household_15_to_20 |
Percentage of households earning $15,000-$20,000. | |||
income_household_20_to_25 |
Percentage of households earning $20,000-$25,000. | |||
income_household_25_to_35 |
Percentage of households earning $25,000-$35,000. | |||
income_household_35_to_50 |
Percentage of households earning $35,000-$50,000. | |||
income_household_50_to_75 |
Percentage of households earning $50,000-$75,000. | |||
income_household_75_to_100 |
Percentage of households earning $75,000-$100,000. | |||
income_household_100_to_150 |
Percentage of households earning $100,000-$150,000. | |||
income_household_150_over |
Percentage of households earning over $150,000. | |||
income_household_six_figure |
Percentage of households that earn at least $100,000 (e.g. 38.7) | |||
income_individual_median |
Median individual income in USD. | |||
home_ownership |
Percentage of households that own (rather than rent) their residence (e.g. 67.4). | |||
home_value |
The median value of owner-occupied homes (e.g. 289,400). | |||
rent_median |
The median rent paid by renters (e.g. 1,456). | |||
rent_burden |
The percentage of renters spending 30% or more of income on rent. | |||
education_less_highschool |
The percentage of residents with less than high school education. | |||
education_highschool |
The percentage of residents with high school education. | |||
education_some_college |
The percentage of residents with some college education. | |||
education_bachelors |
The percentage of residents with bachelor's degree. | |||
education_graduate |
The percentage of residents with graduate degree. | |||
education_college_or_above |
The percentage of residents with at least a 4-year degree (e.g. 39.3). | |||
education_stem_degree |
The percentage of residents with STEM degrees. | |||
labor_force_participation |
The percentage of residents 16 and older in the labor force (e.g. 66.2). From ACS. | |||
labor_force |
The number of people in the labor force (e.g. 5,124,567). Updated as of bls_date. |
|||
labor_force_average |
The average number of people in the labor force. Updated as of bls_date. |
|||
unemployment_rate |
The percentage of residents unemployed (e.g. 4.2). Updated as of bls_date. |
|||
unemployment_rate_average |
The average unemployment rate. Updated as of bls_date. |
|||
bls_date |
The date (MM-YYYY) when labor force and unemployment data was collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (e.g. 04-2025). | |||
gdp |
Gross domestic product in millions of USD (e.g. 689,266) (2023 data from Bureau of Economic Analysis). | |||
real_gdp_growth |
Real GDP growth rate as a percentage (e.g. 2.1) (2023 data from Bureau of Economic Analysis). | |||
murder_rate |
The number of murders per 100,000 residents (e.g. 7.8) (2019 FBI UCR data). | |||
violent_crime_rate |
The number of violent crimes per 100,000 residents (e.g. 452.1) (2019 FBI UCR data). | |||
property_crime_rate |
The number of property crimes per 100,000 residents (e.g. 1,823.4) (2019 FBI UCR data). | |||
race_white |
The percentage of residents who report their race White. | |||
race_black |
The percentage of residents who report their race as Black or African American. | |||
race_asian |
The percentage of residents who report their race as Asian. | |||
race_native |
The percentage of residents who report their race as American Indian and Alaska Native. | |||
race_pacific |
The percentage of residents who report their race as Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander. | |||
race_other |
The percentage of residents who report their race as Some other race. | |||
race_multiple |
The percentage of residents who report their race as Two or more races. | |||
hispanic |
The percentage of residents who report being Hispanic. Note: Hispanic is considered to be an ethnicity and not a race. | |||
disabled |
The percentage of residents with a disability. | |||
poverty |
The percentage of residents living below the poverty line. | |||
limited_english |
The percentage of residents with limited English proficiency. | |||
commute_time |
Average commute time in minutes. | |||
health_uninsured |
The percentage of residents without health insurance. | |||
veteran |
The percentage of residents who are veterans. | |||
zips |
A string containing all five-digit zip codes in the metro area, delimited by a space. | |||
county_name_all |
A string containing all county names in the metro area, delimited by '|'. | |||
county_fips_all |
A string containing all county FIPS codes in the metro area, delimited by '|'. | |||
county_weight_all |
A string containing all county weights in the metro area, delimited by '|'. | |||
county_area |
A string containing all county areas in the metro area, delimited by '|'. | |||
bbox |
The bounding box coordinates as a comma-separated string (e.g. -87.9407,41.6445,-87.5238,42.0677). | |||
bbox_xmin |
The western boundary (minimum longitude) of the metro area (e.g. -87.9407). | |||
bbox_ymin |
The southern boundary (minimum latitude) of the metro area (e.g. 41.6445). | |||
bbox_xmax |
The eastern boundary (maximum longitude) of the metro area (e.g. -87.5238). | |||
bbox_ymax |
The northern boundary (maximum latitude) of the metro area (e.g. 42.0677). | |||
geometry |
Not technically a field, but the shape of each metro area will be represented as a Polygon/Multipolygon in GeoJSON format. This data is provided in a separate file called usmetros.json that can be used with mapping libraries. |
|||
city_all |
A string containing all city names in the metro area, delimited by '|'. | |||
city_id_all |
A string containing all city IDs in the metro area, delimited by '|'. |
Is the Basic (free) version sufficient for my needs?
The Basic (free) database will meet many users' needs. You may want to purchase the Pro or Comprehensive versions if:
What are metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs)?
Metropolitan statistical areas are geographic entities delineated by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for use by federal statistical agencies. They are a subset of Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) that contain a core urban area with a population of 50,000 or more, plus adjacent counties that have a high degree of social and economic integration with the core. This differs from micropolitan statistical areas, which have urban cores of 10,000-49,999 population. MSAs are always composed of complete counties (or county equivalents) - never partial counties. The counties are included based on commuting patterns and economic ties to the central urban area.
Am I allowed to redistribute the database if I purchase a paid license?
No. You are not allowed to sell the database or make it publicly available. However, you can make copies and backups of the data. You are also allowed to query the database to power publicly facing applications such as a store locator. To learn more, read the full license terms.
How often do you release updates?
It depends, we monitor our sources and release new versions when we have more current data, typically a few times a year. Upon purchase, you can elect to receive email alerts when we release new versions of the database.
Why should I trust this data?
This database was aggregated from authoritative sources and carefully processed by SimpleMaps. We've been developing and selling interactive maps to Fortune 500 companies and prominent international organizations for over 14 years. Over this time, we've learned a lot about geographic data. To get a sense of the expertise and support we offer, check out some of the testimonials from our happy customers.
If I use the free database, what type of attribution is required?
If you use the Basic (free) database, you must link back to this page:
https://simplemaps.com/data/us-metros
from a public webpage where you are using the data. If you want to use the data internally, you must link back to this page from your firm's website on a page that can be easily found through links on the root domain. The link must be clearly visible to the human eye.
How recent are the economic and demographic variables such as income_household_median?
The fields of labor_force, labor_force_average, unemployment_rate, unemployment_rate_average come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as of the MM-YYYY specified by bls_date.
The gdp and real_gdp_growth fields come from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis for 2023, accessed in June 2025.
The crime fields (murder_rate, violent_crime_rate, property_crime_rate) come from the FBI's 2019 Uniform Crime Reporting program. This is the last year the FBI compiled this data at the metropolitan statistical area level. Crime data is only available for metro areas where at least 75% of law enforcement agencies reported data to the FBI and the principal city provided complete 12-month data for 2019.
All other demographic variables come from the 2023 American Community Survey's 1-year estimates. This is more current than the ACS 5-year estimates used for other geographic levels (zip codes, counties, cities). We use 1-year estimates for metro areas because they have sufficient population to provide reliable estimates. The ACS is run by the United States Census Bureau.
Does this dataset include data from the 2020 Census?
Yes, this dataset is based on metro area definitions from the 2020 Census. population data and other demographic fields come from the 2023 American Community Survey as noted above.
How do I calculate the distance between two metro areas?
We've published free formulas in popular programming languages. Check them out.
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