Metro markets: cities and their surrounding communities.

• Author: Franco, Lynn

Population growth and migration to the suburbs have expanded the city's economic reach well beyond its municipal borders.

Although there continues to be substantial regional variation in the rate of economic growth, the pickup in the U.S. economy has been felt in all nine regions. In the first quarter of 1994, all nine Regional Performance Indexes registered gains from a year earlier--for the first time since 1988. Moreover, the top-performing regions are registering their strongest economic growth in nearly a decade.

The Mountain region continues to boast the strongest economy, while growth also remains well above average in the West North Central and South Atlantic states. Growth has accelerated significantly in the manufacturing-intensive East North and East South Central states (despite the harsh winter); the West South Central economy also has picked up, paralleling the recent rebound in energy prices.

The lagging regions also have benefited from the strengthening U.S. economy. Growth has picked up impressively in the Middle Atlantic and New England states, despite one of the harshest winters on record. And even the Pacific region finally has emerged from its three-year recession. Still, all three areas continue to perform sub-par.

While some regional economies have improved more than others over the past year, the most dramatic turnarounds have come in specific metropolitan areas. For example, much of the acceleration in New England's economy reflects a strong rebound in Boston, while the Middle Atlantic's rebound comes mostly from a sturdy recovery in New York City's chronically depressed economy.

[This article] describes the major metropolitan markets in each region and introduces some important ways in which they differ from region to region. Metre areas are more cohesive and well-defined economic entities than regions and may be subject to larger cyclical and structural swings. Moreover, they often share distinct demographic, economic and social profiles. In general, metre-market populations tend to have above-average incomes and education levels. Regions that include dominant metre-area economies (i.e., the Pacific) tend to be more upscale and well-educated than rural regions, such as the East South Central, which have no dominant urban center. Indeed, looking at metro areas, there is a strong correlation between educational attainment and average income.

What Are Metro Markets?

The pace and composition of economic activity is hardly uniform across the United States. Focusing on regional economies can provide important information regarding specific markets, as well as a unique perspective on the nation as a whole. However, just what constitutes an economic region is somewhat arbitrary. While there are many ways to segment the...