Indiana's new metropolitan areas: growth redefines the borders of our regional economies.

• Author: Barkey, Patrick M.
• Position: Indiana Indicators

THIS MONTH MARKS THE first important usage of the recently redefined metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) for the state of Indiana. When we receive our first glimpse of state employment information for the new year, the Department of Workforce Development will include three new MSAs in its tables: Anderson, Columbus and Michigan City. And most of the existing metro areas, including Indianapolis, will see significant changes in their geographic composition.

In general terms, why these changes are made is easy to explain. We are a mobile population, and as we move, economic activity moves with us. Large urban areas grow at the fringe, pushing that activity over county borders. And some smaller urban areas have grown large enough to be considered metro areas in their own right.

It is a myth that the Midwest in general, and Indiana in particular, rank as the slowest-growing part of the country. Midwest population growth in 2004, at 0.5 percent, remains significantly higher than the moribund Northeast, and Indiana's 0.6 percent population gain is only slightly off the national average.

On the other hand, the specifics of the changes to MSAs are a little harder to follow. Drawing borders on maps has always been a judgment call.

In this case it is the judgment of the Bureau of Economic Analysis in Washington, based in part on information from the 2000 Census, that made the difference.

So such counties as Adams, DeKalb and Huntington will have to get used to being non-MSA counties again, instead of their previous status as part of the Fort Wayne MSA. It goes the other way for others, such as Jasper and Newton counties (now in Gary-Hammond) and Greene and Owen (now part of the Bloomington MSA). Madison County will start its second stint as the stand-alone Anderson MSA, after spending the 1990s as part of the Indianapolis MSA.

This is more than just putting pins on maps. MSAs have more complete, more timely economic information available. As a new metro area, Columbus will have up-to-date access to industry employment, hours and earnings data for employers within Bartholomew County, timely numbers that didn't exist a month ago. It's a designation that many areas want, and more than a few lobby BEA directly to try to attain.

It also means something for those of us who closely track the data. The Indianapolis MSA, for example, has turned in a very weak employment performance in the last 12 months. Its December job total of 892,700 workers remains 0.1...