California Urban Area Delineations

<p></p><p style='font-family:Verdana; font-size:14px;'><span style='background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);'><font color='#000000'><span style='font-size:medium;'>The Census Bureau released revised delineations for urban areas on December 29, 2022. The new criteria (contained in this </span><a href='https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2022-03-24/pdf/2022-06180.pdf?utm_campaign=subscription+mailing+list&amp;utm_source=federalregister.gov&amp;utm_medium=email' style='font-size:medium;' target='_self' rel='nofollow ugc'>Federal Register Notice</a><span style='font-size:medium;'>) is based primarily on housing unit density measured at the census block level. The minimum qualifying threshold for inclusion as an urban area is an area that contains at least 2,000 housing units or has a population of at least 5,000 persons. It also eliminates the classification of areas as “urban clusters/urbanized areas”. This represents a change from 2010, where urban areas were defined as areas consisting of 50,000 people or more and urban clusters consisted of at least 2,500 people but less than 50,000 people with at least 1,500 people living outside of group quarters. Due to the new population thresholds for urban areas, 36 urban clusters in California are no longer considered urban areas, leaving California with 193 urban areas after the new criteria was implemented.</span></font></span></p><p style='font-family:Verdana; font-size:14px;'><font color='#000000'><span style='background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);'><span style='font-size:medium;'>The State of California experienced an increase of 1,885,884 in the total urban population, or 5.3%. </span></span><span style='font-size:medium;'>However, </span><span style='font-size:medium;'>the</span><span style='font-size:medium;'> total urban area population as a percentage of the California total population went down from 95% to 94.2%.</span><span style='background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);'><span style='font-size:12pt; font-family:&quot;Avenir Next&quot;, Avenir, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'> </span><span style='font-size:medium;'>For more information about the mapped data, download the Excel spreadsheet </span><a href='https://cadof-my.sharepoint.com/:x:/g/personal/fijbruhn_dof_ca_gov/EVsWDRXrfy1PgZ3G8FEotu4BzE_fVB-yyeAgwyM3wKgMEQ?e=SC3YbY' style='font-size:medium;' target='_self' rel='nofollow ugc'>here</a><span style='font-size:medium;'>.</span></span></font></p><p style='font-family:Verdana; font-size:14px;'></p><p style='font-family:Verdana; font-size:14px;'></p><p style='font-family:Verdana; font-size:14px;'></p><p style='font-family:Verdana; font-size:14px;'><font color='#000000' size='3' style='background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);'>Please note that some of the 2020 urban areas have different names or additional place names as a result of the inclusion of housing unit counts as secondary naming criteria.</font></p><p style='background-image:initial; background-position:initial; background-size:initial; background-repeat:initial; background-attachment:initial; background-origin:initial; background-clip:initial; font-family:Verdana; font-size:14px;'><span style='font-size:medium;'><font color='#000000'>Please note there are four urban areas that cross state boundaries in Arizona and Nevada. For 2010, only the parts within California are displayed on the map; however, the population and housing estimates represent the entirety of the urban areas. For 2020, the population and housing unit estimates pertains to the areas within California only. </font></span></p><p style='font-family:Verdana; font-size:14px; background-image:initial; background-position:initial; background-size:initial; background-repeat:initial; background-attachment:initial; background-origin:initial; background-clip:initial;'><span style='color:rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size:medium;'>Data for this web application was derived from the 2010 and 2020 Censuses (2010 and 2020 Census Blocks, 2020 Urban Areas, and Counties) and the 2016-2020 American Community Survey (2010 -Urban Areas) and can be found at </span><a href='https://data.census.gov/' style='font-size:medium;' rel='nofollow ugc'>data.census.gov</a><span style='color:rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size:medium;'>.</span><br /></p><p style='font-family:Verdana; font-size:14px;'><span style='font-size:medium; background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);'><font color='#000000'>For more information about the urban area delineations, visit the Census Bureau's <a href='https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/geography/guidance/geo-areas/urban-rural.html' target='_self' rel='nofollow ugc'>Urban and Rural webpage</a> </font></span><span style='font-size:medium;'><font color='#000000'>and </font></span><a href='https://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/reference/ua/Census_UA_2020FAQs.pdf' style='font-family:&quot;Avenir Next&quot;, Avenir, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size:medium;' target='_blank' rel='nofollow ugc noopener noreferrer'>FAQ</a><font color='#000000' style='font-size:medium;'>.</font></p><p style='font-family:Verdana; font-size:14px;'><span style='font-size:medium; background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);'><font color='#000000'>To view more data from the State of California Department of Finance, visit the <a href='https://dru-data-portal-cacensus.hub.arcgis.com/' target='_self' rel='nofollow ugc'>Demographic Research Unit Data Hub</a>.</font></span></p>