TitleUsing Data Buffet: Picking the metro forecast geo vintage
AuthorLaura Ratz, Richard Cross
Question
How do I pick the geo vintage of metro areas used in the Moody's Analytics metro area forecast?
Answer
Use the geography wizard
When you browse the Data Buffet catalog "Forecast - U.S. Metropolitan Areas" and enter the geo wizard, under "type of region" you are presented with numerous geo types related to metro areas.
For this forecast product, these are the best types:
- USA - Metropolitan Statistical Area, CBSA 2010
- USA - Metropolitan Divisions, CBSA 2010
These are equivalent:
- USA - Metropolitan Statistical Area, CBSA 2010 (August 2017)
- USA - Metropolitan Divisions, CBSA 2010 (August 2017)
The remaining dated geo types pertain to prior-vintage forecasts and to historical datasets.
Use the basket editor
When editing a basket in list view or grid view, you can use a geo list to retrieve a specific set of geos in a fixed order. For the U.S. metro area forecast, the relevant list is:
You can view the content of the list under menu:Tools ยป Geography List.
Background
As of the August 2019 vintage of the Moody's Analytics forecast, we use the OMB August 2017 (a.k.a. "17-01") delineations of metro areas. For our purposes, this geo vintage is identical to the newer April 2018 ("18-03") vintage; that is, they have identical lists of MSAs and metro divisions, and where they do differ is in CBSA subtypes that we do not forecast, such as micropolitan areas.
We plan to update to the September 2018 ("18-04") delineations as of our March 2020 forecast vintage.
Our U.S. metro forecast contains both MSAs and metro divisions. Not all concept-geo pairs exist.
The various historical sources which are direct or indirect inputs to our forecast model do not use a uniform geo vintage, for which we compensate with intermediate processing.
See also
Related Releases
U.S. MSA Alternative Scenarios
U.S. MSA Forecast