Actually, the Census Bureau keeps data on smaller entities. They’re called “cities.”
But listen, we like MSAs, and Forbes.com uses them for twenty of its top twenty-five cities. They’re mostly fine for this kind thing. We think, however, MDs are a lame excuse for “cities,” and should not be used. And why mix different categories, MSAs and MDs, and call them both “cities,” which neither is? And are Framingham and Cambridge really the same place?

When we asked Andelman for further clarification, he responded in an e-mail saying that beyond what he had already told us, “We feel the story and related slideshow as they appear on Forbes.com speak for themselves, and we don’t have anything further to
add.”

In an interview, Bert Sperling, who runs the site that provided data to Forbes.com, said that using Metropolitan Divisions made sense because they offered a narrower slice of an MSA. He also cautioned us against too rigorous an analysis of Forbes’s lists, which are often, as he carefully put it, “quirky” and “lighthearted in analysis.”

But even MSAs can be a problem. Take Raleigh and Durham. Forbes.com treats the two separately even though they are virtually on top of each other. Indeed, they were until they became quite recently part of the same Census-defined MSA—until, that is, the House Office of Management and Budget changed many of its statistical definitions after the 2000 Census.

Still, we always thought Raleigh (nineteenth) was stupider than Durham (fourteenth), and now we know it’s true.

Then there’s the problem of false precision, a hallmark of the business press. “Bridgeport,” at 39.33 percent, is a tenth of point smarter than the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA, at 39.23 percent. What’s the difference? A couple of comp-lit grads in Fairfield? Other entries have differences almost as small and are inside the margin of error. As long as we’re playing statistician, there’s no statistical difference between the two, um, cities.

The OMB warns against using these definitions for anything other than statistical purposes. In a 2005 bulletin, the OMB stated that these statistical areas “are not intended to serve as a general-purpose geographic framework for nonstatistical activities.” It also says:

It is generally not appropriate to rank or directly compare Metropolitan Divisions with Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas.

But did Forbes.com listen? No, it did not.

Finally, we feel bad that our hometown, New York, didn’t make the list at all.

With offices on Fifth Avenue, Forbes is not helping.

  • 1
  • 2