Hopefully, Raleigh and Durham MSAs are merged again most of the comments about us were by me. Hopefully, we axxened enough urban area to tie us back together. Raleigh touches the ends of Durham, I think commuting patterns get overlooked RTP is our best friend in this. Since a lot of people and politicians before really don’t give a damn I hope they don’t mind this happening but still, they don’t have a say anyway 
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For years the Raleigh MSA has played second fiddle in growth percentage to Austin. A recombination with Durham will drag the Triangle’s growth rate down, but it will elevate visibility and position the Triangle with a different peer group.
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Visibility and position is better, we will cross the 2 million mark but that a concern i’d be aware about.
Census Bureau still hasn’t released county-to-county commuting flows from the 5-year ACS, from which data OMB defines its CBSAs. I’ll be surprised if we see the new definitions this week, or indeed before December.
But I like surprises.
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I was just looking at the CSA mapping in the USA and I noticed just how close the Triangle’s southwestern edge is to Metrolina’s northeastern edge, and it’s only about 30 miles.
So, while nerding out on possibilities, a recombined Raleigh/Durham MSA might look like this…
Wake+Durham+Johnston+Orange+Chatham+Franklin = 2,047,528 (2022 est)
A new CSA might add these counties and end up like this…
Harnett+Lee+Granville+Person = a grand total of 2,353,125 (2022 est)
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@anon8787296 I wonder what Johnathan Melton thinks about this possible merger.
If the MSA and CSA are merged that 4 million people almost comparable to Atlanta.
Dude. The total is 2.35M. Don’t add 2.35M to the 2.05M.
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That all means we could get substaineual funding for commuter rail, for both the Raleigh to Orange County lines, and the Fayetteville to Raleigh one. The merger opens up possibilities we haven’t imagined. It would also make us the largest metro area without two professional Sports teams, an array Fortune 50 companies among other we’d also outpace Austin MSAs we literally obliterate there metro and head to top 30 or top 25 largest metro areas. And even possibly another Airport hub. So i’m looking at the positives not the negatives, since no local governments have power and also this won’t change everything, I asked Megan Patton about this she thought school busses and city services would bewill be messed up I had to educate her on it.
This will make our area viable again.
Again, 2.35M is all of the listed counties combined. It would put us in the same league as Cincinnati.
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Hmm ain’t that so, well it will still be good, more pro-sports team that what im betting this merger will do. Well be back on track like before 2003.
Actual more we be bigger than Cincy. Almost
The dream would to see what Alamance County does in a combined Triangle MSA with Wake and Durham as the core counties. Commuting is trending away from Guilford, but the split means Alamance stays in the Triad CSA.
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It’s interesting that Alamance outflows to the Triangle but inflows from Guilford.
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Agenda from the Wake Co/Raleigh Chamber of Commerce Economic Development meeting this morning
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The MSAs need to merge. It’s comical at this point. Just willfully denying reality, and it hurts everyone living here ultimately.
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I think the Census will realize that.
Replying to my original post that started this topic, We are now 5 years past the OMB moving both Harnett and Lee counties out of the Triangle’s CSA. Prior to that change, the Triangle’s CSA would have been sitting just under 2.2M. I said that it would take 5 more years to statistically recover. Well, here we are in 2023 with the latest CSA estimate sitting at 2.19M, and we are awaiting a bulletin from the OMB to see if they have made any changes to the statistical areas for this 5 year review. June is supposed to be the month for the bulletin but there’s nothing published yet.
As a reminder, in the 2018 bulletin Fayetteville picked up Harnett in its MSA and Lee in its CSA and Durham picked up Granville. Raleigh got nothing despite Wake being the center of absolute growth for the entire state. There are a lot of folks on City-Data who are confident that the OMB is going to reverse course on those two counties, plus recombine the Raleigh-Durham MSA. Yet others are confident that the recombination will allow the Triangle to pick up Alamance.
I’ll believe it all when I see it, but I’m not holding my breath.
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I honestly, sincerely, and completly agreed with you in your assessment. 
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