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In 2003, the United States government, through the Census Bureau and the Office of Management and Budget, recognized a new community classification called the micropolitan area. This is a definable zone of development which is based around a core city or town having a population of 10,000 to 50,000. Like the better-known metropolitan area, this is an economic and demographic measurement, independent of political jurisdictions. The bureau identified 578 such areas in the nation.
Micropolitan towns do not have the economic or political importance of large cities, but are nevertheless significant centers of population and production, drawing workers and shoppers from a wide local area. Because the designation is based on the core town's population and not that of the whole area, some micros are actually larger than some metropolitan areas. The largest, Torrington, Connecticut, had a population in excess of 180,000 in 2000.
Many such areas have dynamic rates of growth, but nevertheless, combined, the micros account for only about 10% of the population, a figure which demographers do not expect to increase much in the foreseeable future.
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