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Home Crime in the U.S. 2015 Crime in the U.S. 2015 Resource Pages Area Definitions

Area Definitions

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The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program collects crime data and supplemental information that make it possible to generate a variety of statistical compilations, including data presented by reporting areas. These statistics provide data users with the opportunity to analyze local crime data in conjunction with data for areas of similar geographic location or population size. The reporting areas that the UCR Program uses in its data breakdowns include community types, population groups, and regions and geographic divisions. For community types, the UCR Program considers proximity to metropolitan areas using the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) designations. (Generally, sheriffs, county police, and state police report crimes within counties but outside cities; local police report crimes within city limits.) The number of inhabitants living in a locale (based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s figures) determines the population group into which the program places it. Finally, in its geographic breakdowns, the UCR Program divides the United States into regions and divisions.

Community types

In order to assist data users who wish to analyze and present uniform statistical data about metropolitan areas, the UCR Program uses reporting units that represent major population centers. The program compiles data for these areas according to three types of communities:

  • Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs)

Each MSA contains a principal city or urbanized area with a population of at least 50,000 inhabitants. MSAs include the principal city; the county in which the city is located; and other adjacent counties that have, as defined by the OMB, a high degree of economic and social integration with the principal city and county as measured through commuting. In the UCR Program, counties within an MSA are considered metropolitan. In addition, MSAs may cross state boundaries. In 2015, approximately 85.5 percent of the nation’s population lived in MSAs.

Some presentations in this publication refer to Metropolitan Divisions, which are subdivisions of an MSA that consists of a core with “a population of at least 2.5 million persons. A Metropolitan Division consists of one or more main/secondary counties that represent an employment center or centers, plus adjacent counties associated with the main county or counties through commuting ties,” (Federal Register 65 [249]). Also, some tables reference suburban areas, which are subdivisions of MSAs that exclude the principal cities but include all the remaining cities (those having fewer than 50,000 inhabitants) and the unincorporated areas of the MSAs.

Note: Because the elements that comprise MSAs (particularly the geographic compositions) are subject to change, the program discourages data users from making year-to-year comparisons of MSA data.

  • Cities Outside MSAs

Ordinarily, cities outside MSAs are incorporated areas. In 2015, cities outside MSAs made up 5.9 percent of the nation’s population.

  • Nonmetropolitan Counties Outside MSAs

Most nonmetropolitan counties are composed of unincorporated areas. In 2015, 8.6 percent of the nation’s population resided in nonmetropolitan counties.

Community types are further illustrated in the following table: 

Metropolitan

Nonmetropolitan

Principal Cities                       (50,000+ inhabitants)

Cities outside Metropolitan Areas

Suburban Cities

Metropolitan Counties

Nonmetropolitan Counties

Population groups

The UCR Program uses the following population group designations:

Population Group

Political Label

Population Range

I

City

250,000 and more

II

City

100,000 to 249,999

III

City

50,000 to 99,999

IV

City

25,000 to 49,999

V

City

10,000 to 24,999

VI1, 2

City

Less than 10,000

VIII (NonmetropolitanCounty) 2

County

N/A

IX (MetropolitanCounty) 2

County

N/A

1Includes universities and colleges to which no population is attributed.
2Includes state police to which no population is attributed.

Individual law enforcement agencies are the source of UCR data. The number of agencies included in each population group may vary from year to year because of population growth, geopolitical consolidation, municipal incorporation, etc. In noncensus years, the UCR Program estimates population figures for individual jurisdictions. (A more comprehensive explanation of population estimations can be found in the Methodology.)

The table below shows the number of agencies within each population group that contributed data to the UCR Program for 2015:

Population Group

Number of Agencies

Population Covered

I

83

61,173,970

II

218

32,439,832

III

497

34,534,593

IV

900

31,133,502

V

1,924

30,704,780

VI1, 2

9,691

26,604,998

VIII (NonmetropolitanCounty)2

2,890

27,652,980

IX (MetropolitanCounty)2

2,236

77,174,165

Total

18,439

321,418,820

1Includes universities and colleges to which no population is attributed.
2Includes state police to which no population is attributed.

Regions and divisions

The map below illustrates the four regions of the United States along with their nine geographic divisions as established by the U.S. Census Bureau. The UCR Program uses this widely recognized geographic organization when compiling the nation’s crime data.

Regions Map

The following table lists the 50 states and the District of Columbia arranged according to the regions and geographic divisions of the United States.

NORTHEASTERN STATES

New England

Middle Atlantic

Connecticut

New Jersey

Maine

New York

Massachusetts

Pennsylvania

New Hampshire

 

Rhode Island

 

Vermont

 

MIDWESTERN STATES

East North Central

West North Central

Illinois

Iowa

Indiana

Kansas

Michigan

Minnesota

Ohio

Missouri

Wisconsin

Nebraska

 

North Dakota

 

South Dakota

SOUTHERN STATES

South Atlantic

East South Central

Delaware

Alabama

District of Columbia

Kentucky

Florida

Mississippi

Georgia

Tennessee

Maryland

West South Central

North Carolina

Arkansas

South Carolina

Louisiana

Virginia

Oklahoma

West Virginia

Texas

 

WESTERN STATES

Mountain

Pacific

Arizona

Alaska

Colorado

California

Idaho

Hawaii

Montana

Oregon

Nevada

Washington

New Mexico

 

Utah

 

Wyoming