# What varible for CPS data do I select to get St. Louis City?

**URL:** <https://forum.ipums.org/t/what-varible-for-cps-data-do-i-select-to-get-st-louis-city/3375>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [February 22, 2020, 5:25am UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/what-varible-for-cps-data-do-i-select-to-get-st-louis-city/3375 "2020-02-22T05:25:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![motley.r](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a9a28c/32.png) [@motley.r](https://forum.ipums.org/u/motley.r)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2020, 5:25am UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/what-varible-for-cps-data-do-i-select-to-get-st-louis-city/3375/1 "2020-02-22T05:25:54Z")

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What varible for CPS data do I select to get St. Louis City? There is no “City” variable in the list of variables anymore?

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**Author:** ![Matthew\_Bombyk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Matthew\_Bombyk](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Matthew_Bombyk)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 5:53pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/what-varible-for-cps-data-do-i-select-to-get-st-louis-city/3375/2 "2020-02-24T17:53:17Z")

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In CPS you can identify cities in some cases by using a combination of [METAREA](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/METAREA#codes_section) to identify the metro area, and [METRO](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/METRO#codes_section) to identify whether the respondent is within the central city of the metro area. Note that the coverage is not always perfect for metro areas - there may be parts of the metro or city that are not identified in the data. Also sampling variability at the metro area tends to be high. Please see the [description page](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/METAREA#description_section) for METAREA for more info.