For a list of identified cities and the codes necessary to uniquely identify them, consult the links below for the appropriate time period:

January 1989 - May 1995
September 1995 - April 2004
May 2004 - July 2015
August 2015 onward

0 = Not identified

Description

For households that reside in a central/principal city of a metropolitan area, INDIVIDCC identifies the individual city of residence. In the official metropolitan area definitions produced by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), every metropolitan area contains one or more "central cities" (in pre-2003 definitions) or "principal cities" (in definitions since 2003). The central/principal cities include the largest city in each metropolitan area by population along with certain other large cities that meet requirements stipulated by the OMB protocols in use at the time. Not all central/principal cities are identified. INDIVIDCC must be used along with METFIPS and (sometimes) COUNTY or STATEFIP to uniquely identify cities. (More information is under the "Codes" tab).

Note that for many cities, sample sizes will be too small to provide reliable city-level statistics.

Comparability

See the "Codes" tab for changes in the coding scheme over time.

In January 2023, the Census Bureau made a significant change to the way confidentiality is protected for individuals in small geographic areas. Geography is now partially synthesized for areas with a population below the threshold of 100,000. This change will be phased in as new respondents enter the CPS, beginning with month-in-sample 1 in January 2023. These changes affect the following geographic variables: METFIPS, COUNTY, METRO, INDIVIDCC, and CBSASZ. For more information, see the Census Bureau’s 2023 Current Population Survey User Note.

Universe

Flags

Unharmonized Variables

• UH_CCCODE_A2
• UH_CCCODE_A3
• UH_CCCODE_B1
• UH_CCCODE_B2
• UH_CCCODE_B3