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What do you think is the most overrated statistic or statistics in regards to a city or town? Is it crime? What about school test scores? Ethnic/racial makeup? What do you think?
This would not apply to small towns, but for many cities large enough to be the hubs of metropolitan areas I'd say that the city proper population is a stat which often gives a problematic picture of the phenomenon it measures. Usually the MSA population gives a better idea of how big a city looks and feels, how many buildings, offices, businesses of various sorts, services, etc., the principal city actually contains. This does depend on what the stat is being used for. City officials would find the city proper population more useful for planning a school budget, with schools serving those children who live right in the city, but for many other functions the MSA population would give a better approximation of the number of people who actually use the city.
ogre, I agree. That was the first thing that came to mind when I saw this thread title.
I think the MSA gives a good idea, but sometimes that's even off. Some MSA's abut another MSA shrinking the size and giving a misleading number (look at Philly) and other times, a MSA spans far beyond what it should (I think this is the case for many smaller cities around the nation).
To get a good feel of how big a city is, I think a combination of the Urbanized area and MSA are necessary. For example, the Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline, etc could ALL be considered part of Boston's urban area but the urban area doesn't make up the entirety of the MSA (Same goes for Pawtucket and Cranston and parts of East Providence to Providence RI). In a city like Jacksonville, only the center of the city would be considered the urbanized area while some surrounding towns will be part of the MSA. Combining these two statistics really gives one a better feel for the size of the city.
Proper population. Miami population is a little above 400,000 but does it feel like a city of 400,000? Of course not it feel like your in a city of 5,000,000 which is what it is.
Also honestly crime rates are overrated. They are very important to get me wrong. But if you dont live in the high crime areas and stay out of them and use common sense your probably going to do just fine. I feel that crime rates are a overrated stat for tourist a lot more than for residents since 99% of tourist dont ever need to go to the areas where crime is a problem.
Proper population. Miami population is a little above 400,000 but does it feel like a city of 400,000? Of course not it feel like your in a city of 5,000,000 which is what it is.
Also honestly crime rates are overrated. They are very important to get me wrong. But if you dont live in the high crime areas and stay out of them and use common sense your probably going to do just fine. I feel that crime rates are a overrated stat for tourist a lot more than for residents since 99% of tourist dont ever need to go to the areas where crime is a problem.
Very true and even if you are a resident, it depnds on the city, the time you go through said neighborhoods and so on.
This would not apply to small towns, but for many cities large enough to be the hubs of metropolitan areas I'd say that the city proper population is a stat which often gives a problematic picture of the phenomenon it measures. Usually the MSA population gives a better idea of how big a city looks and feels, how many buildings, offices, businesses of various sorts, services, etc., the principal city actually contains. This does depend on what the stat is being used for. City officials would find the city proper population more useful for planning a school budget, with schools serving those children who live right in the city, but for many other functions the MSA population would give a better approximation of the number of people who actually use the city.
Yeah, I think if you go by the term Greater "whatever city", that is more representative of the urban area than just the city limits or even the whole metro area.
I just read statistics on the 20 safest states in the US. In general, New England is the safest region, followed by the Plains. What struck me is that the numbers on rape seem somehow independent from those on other forms of crimes. There are states that are very safe, but which oddly rank among the 20 least safe states when it comes to rape. On the other hand NY and NJ are the safest states regarding rape, while other types of violent crime are more common.
Example: South Dakota
Among the top ten safest states in terms of assault, burglary, murder, robbery, vehicle theft, but at the same time the 13th most dangerous state regarding rape.
I wonder why that is... I guess I would prefer a place where I might be robbed over one where I would have to be worried about the safety of my wife and daughters.
Proper population. Miami population is a little above 400,000 but does it feel like a city of 400,000? Of course not it feel like your in a city of 5,000,000 which is what it is.
Also honestly crime rates are overrated. They are very important to get me wrong. But if you dont live in the high crime areas and stay out of them and use common sense your probably going to do just fine. I feel that crime rates are a overrated stat for tourist a lot more than for residents since 99% of tourist dont ever need to go to the areas where crime is a problem.
Miami doesn't have 5,000,000, 100 miles of the Florida coastline does, which includes Miami-Ft lauderdale-Boca Ratan-West Palm Beach.
Miami doesn't have 5,000,000, 100 miles of the Florida coastline does, which includes Miami-Ft lauderdale-Boca Ratan-West Palm Beach.
If you look at the census the Metro area is over 5 million
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