Spartanburg's MSA

[Spartan]

Spartanburg's growing economic influence on the surrounding area was made a little more formal yesterday. The Census Bureau released the new Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) designations, and there were some noteworthy changes affecting SC. We have a thread about it here. However, I wanted to bring up the issue in the Spartanburg forum because some folks may not jump up to the South Carolina general discussions forum as often as others.

 

Specifically, Spartanburg has added Union County to its MSA, bringing the population total to around 316,000. This is noteworthy for a number of reasons. First and foremost I think it is indicative of how bad the economy is in Union. Their reliance on Spartanburg for jobs has clearly increased over the past 10 years. To that end, does anyone think this makes Union a de facto suburb of Spartanburg?

 

The Spartanburg MSA is still a part of the larger Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson Consolidated Statistical Area (CSA) which shows a broader economic relationship across the entire Upstate. Spartanburg continues to be a separate MSA from Greenville which implies that we continue to have enough economic influence to not be joined at the hip with them.

 

There are a number of other changes within South Carolina, including the addition of a new MSA and one MSA adding a county from North Carolina. I encourage you all to go read the other thread for that discussion.

 

[roads-scholar]

Spartanburg's growing economic influence on the surrounding area was made a little more formal yesterday. The Census Bureau released the new Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) designations, and there were some noteworthy changes affecting SC. We have a thread about it here. However, I wanted to bring up the issue in the Spartanburg forum because some folks may not jump up to the South Carolina general discussions forum as often as others.

 

Specifically, Spartanburg has added Union County to its MSA, bringing the population total to around 316,000. This is noteworthy for a number of reasons. First and foremost I think it is indicative of how bad the economy is in Union. Their reliance on Spartanburg for jobs has clearly increased over the past 10 years. To that end, does anyone think this makes Union a de facto suburb of Spartanburg?

 

The Spartanburg MSA is still a part of the larger Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson Consolidated Statistical Area (CSA) which shows a broader economic relationship across the entire Upstate. Spartanburg continues to be a separate MSA from Greenville which implies that we continue to have enough economic influence to not be joined at the hip with them.

 

There are a number of other changes within South Carolina, including the addition of a new MSA and one MSA adding a county from North Carolina. I encourage you all to go read the other thread for that discussion.

Good analysis Spartan. 

 

My question to you is regarding Cherokee County.  Is that county part of the Spartanburg MSA?

[westsider28]

Roads-scholar, Cherokee County is not part of Spartanburg's MSA.  I'm a bit surprised about that, personally.  I guess there aren't enough businesses on the Eastside to draw enough commuters from Cherokee.

 

I expect Spartanburg to maintain its own MSA, separate from Greenville-Anderson.  That would sync up with other similar places like Winston-Salem vs Greensboro-High Point in the Triad, and Durham vs Raleigh-Cary in the Triangle.

 

I do find these kind of statistics fascinating.  I've followed the SC thread about MSAs, as well as Charlotte & NC threads.

[Spartan]

Yeah my guess is Cherokee has enough pull from Charlotte, Gastonia, Rock Hill, and Cleveland County NC in addition to Spartanburg that no one county meets the magic number. Gaffney is about 30-45 minutes away from everything.