Determining nonmetro counties in CPS

1

I am trying to determine nonmetro areas in CPS data, but there is no variable that explicitly defines nonmetro areas. the variable that comes close to defining nonmetro area is METAREA, but it ends up combining nonmetro areas with NIU (not in the universe). I was hoping to use GTMETSTA, which explicitly identifies nonmetro counties, but i cant find this variable in the IPUMS data. Any help?
Ephraim

2

I recommend using the METRO variable to differentiate between those living in metropolitan areas vs. non-metropolitan areas. This variable does essentially the same thing as GTMETSTA. The unharmonized IPUMS CPS variable that feeds into METRO is UH_METSTAT_B1.

CPS will never identify individual counties outside of metropolitan areas because of sample size and confidentiality reasons.

David Van Riper
IPUMS

3

Thanks a lot David for your quick answer.

Ephraim