08 qmsa definition maintenance
QMSA Definition and Maintenance
Quasi-Metropolitan Statistical Areas (QMSA’s) are collections of counties that are used to “divvy up” the counties of the State into geographical regions. They are used extensively by several States, such as Pennsylvania, Texas, and Maryland. When a standard set of regions has been determined, these QMSA’s can be used for regional data analysis, to distribute the editing assignments among personnel, etc. QMSA’s are valid for input in several analysis reports, and automatically split out edits in the ES2E screen.
To demonstrate how QMSA’s are defined, we’ll present our make-believe State of Ohiowa, depicted in the map below:
Ohiowa (with a postal abbreviation “OA”, FIPS Code ‘43’), contains 14 counties, shown on the map. The QCEW staff wants to divide the State into the Northeast Region, the Western Region, the Southeast Region, and the Central Region. The counties of Ohiowa are as follows:
- County 001 (Western Region) – Adams County
- County 003 (Southeastern Region) – Butler County
- County 005 (Central Region) – Clinton County
- County 007 (Western Region) – Delaware County
- County 009 (Northeastern Region) – Franklin County
- County 011 (Western Region) – Hamilton County
- County 013 (Northeastern Region) – Harrison County
- County 015 (Central Region) – Jackson County
- County 017 (Central Region) – Jefferson County
- County 019 (Southeastern Region) – Madison County
- County 021 (Southeastern Region) – Monroe County
- County 023 (Northeastern Region) – Shelby County
- County 025 (Northeastern Region) – Union County
- County 027 (Western Region) – Washington County
As shown on the map, the QMSA assignments are #1 (Northeast), #2 (Western), #3 (Southeast), and #4 (Central). The QMSA numbers shown here (Q0001, Q0002, Q0003 and Q0004) designate the four geographic regions of the State (Northeast, Southeast, Western and Central Regions, respectively). Defining the QMSA’s involves two steps.
Related Links
