Talk:Greater St. Louis

Black Lives Matter is a St. Louis legacy
A link to Black Lives Matter belongs in the See Also section, because the movement grew from an obscure hashtag to an international movement (and according to many US news outlets at the time, one of if not the biggest story of 2014) in the St. Louis metropolitan area. I have thus added the following text there:

"*Black Lives Matter— a social justice movement that grew from obscurity to an international movement and one of the biggest US news stories of 2014, due to a perception of racist policing in the killing of unarmed African-American minor Michael Brown by European-American police officer Darren Wilson in the St. Louis metropolitan area" Kaecyy (talk) 17:35, 2 February 2017 (UTC)
 * I have removed this "see also." BLM was certainly inspired in large part by the events in St. Louis County, but that discussion is not relevant in the context of a "see also" section for this article. The other "see also" links are articles that are very specifically about St. Louis topics, or otherwise lists related to metropolitan areas. Additionally, the Black Lives Matter article has scant mention of St. Louis. It just doesn't fit there. --Jprg1966 (talk) 06:04, 25 January 2018 (UTC)

These numbers are way off
First of all, let me assure you, as I am writing this, I am in St. Louis University. Actually, I am a student at SLU and have been for a year. I am very familiar with the St. Louis metro, and I want to say this metro stuff is COMPLETE bullshit! 2.8 million people! Absolutley not! What is a metro? To me, a metro is an area that people consider to be the city itself; in other words, if someone from Ladue goes to Chicago, they will say, "Im from St. Louis". Also, metros are generally connected by dense suburbs and an integrated road system. From what I can tell, the MSA of St. Louis, really consists of primarly the City of St. Louis (350,000 people), the County (1.1 million), St. Charles County, (300,000 people), and the surrounding Illinois counties (200,000 people at most). Hell-- ill even throw in an additional 100,000 for the communites that are surrounding the above counties. That comes to... hmmm, let me think... 2.1 million people, and that's being generous. What it seems like to me is that you all are adding in all these counties to boost your population numbers, despite the fact that few of them even consider themselves as part of St. Louis' MSA. That's like taking Lawerence, Topeka, and St. Joe and adding those numbers to Kansas City's MSA, even though they are clearly seperate entities. Again, St. Louis has at most 2.1 million in it's metro. When I ask friends from some of the far out suburbs that you all are saying are in the "metro" of St. Louis, they all say they are from their individual towns. When I ask them if they are from St. Louis metro they respond NO. In fact, most people in St. Louis don't even consider Illinois part of the metro; as it's concieved to be a "ghetto" by many people on the Missouri side. These numbers really need to be re-evaluated; because if St. Louis has 2.8 million, then Kansas City has 3 million easy by these standards. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Enorton (talk • contribs) 22:59, 6 October 2008 (UTC)


 * The U.S. census decides what counties are included in a metropolitan area. They do this primarily based on analysis of labor integration.  According to almost all sources this is an accurate way to measure the size of a settlement.  Other helpful definitions include urban area and city.Grey Wanderer (talk) 15:13, 12 October 2008 (UTC)

New St. Louis Metropolitan Counties
As of now, four new counties have entered the St. Louis Metro Area, 1 in Missouri (Washington), and 3 in Illinois (Bond, Calhoun, and Macoupin).

Does anyone have a date/year that these counties were added? "As of now..." doesn't have journalistic shelf-life.Tysalpha 18:13, 20 September 2007 (UTC)


 * It was probably sometime in 2004. How easy it is to get a source depends upon how long the St Louis Post Dispatch archives articles in the free section of their site. Jon (talk) 00:11, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

You are off on your area numbers
Can the below inflamatory discussion be removed, now that the proper conversion of square area has been identified? Tysalpha 18:10, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

You have St. Louis' MSA's area at 6,395 square miles. That DOES NOT equal 15,000 square kilometers. I have CHANGED THE NUMBERS by using a converter (obviously you people from St. Louis do not have good math or are trying to fudge the numbers like you fudge everything else to make your city appear better) that has accuratley converted the area to be 10,291 square kilometers.
 * Thanks for the correction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Assume_good_faith Cynic783 13:35, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Please double-check the math. It's true that 6395 miles equals 10291 kilometers, but 6395 SQUARE miles equals 16562 square kilometers.  My source is Google calculator.  Google for "6,395 square miles to square kilometers" without the quotes.Cynic783 14:49, 6 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Slight correction: as of 2000 census should be 6,392.07 sq. mi source http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/GCTTable?_bm=y&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U&-CONTEXT=gct&-mt_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_GCTPH1_US25&-redoLog=false&-_caller=geoselect&-geo_id=&-format=US-10|US-10S&-_lang=en conversion to square km comes from http://www.unitconversion.org/area/square-kilometers-to-square-miles-conversion.htmlCynic783 15:14, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Clinton County, Illinois
When and why did the Census Bureau add Clinton County to the MSA?--Bhuck 11:02, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Its been part of the MSA for two or three decades (don't know the exact year they added it). Neighboring Washington County, however, is not part of the MSA despite being located in the 50 mile radius of St. Louis proper (partly due to political reasons, partly due to the fact that county population is only 15,000). Warren and Lincoln counties were added in 2004 due to major growth in those counties. Kimmy78 15:29, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Washington County is Republican, while the surrounding area is Democratic, but that's a dumb criterion for determining whether it's part of the metropolitan area or not. And the population centers of Clinton County, Carlyle and Centralia (west side), are hardly characteristic of being St. Louis suburbs.  Is the definition just "county within x miles with more than y inhabitants"?--Bhuck 16:59, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
 * This is over simplfifing, but The Census Bureu compares how many people in a given county work in another county. Jon 18:35, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
 * No, Clinton county was recently added. It was no more than 12 years ago, because in the 80's and 90's it was NOT considered part of St Louis. I think after the 2000 census, it was added, so no, it was NOT 2 or 3 decades ago- I was living here 5 decades ago, and not until the early 2000's was this even considered in the same St Louis area as Madison, St. Clair, and Monroe counties.--75.0.32.244 (talk) 23:52, 27 August 2011 (UTC)

Rename to St Louis Metro
I have lived in the St Louis area since 1999 and have never once heard St Louis Metro refered to by locals as "Greater St. Louis". I've normaly heard just "St Louis" used when describing the Metro, and sometimes "St Louis Metro" when it was neccesarity to distingth between the city and the metro. Jon 17:45, 24 May 2007 (UTC)


 * I also note that the template for the metro area is entiled "St. Louis Metro Area" (actually with Metro. spelled out, but I'd butcher the spelling) and not "Greater St. Louis Metro Area" (again with Metro. spelled out). Jon (talk) 00:13, 5 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I've lived here since the 70's, and the "Greater St Louis" phrase was used back then. It was also used in the 80's, and in the 90's, until the Metrolink light rail started in 1993. After that, somehow the whole area becaume Metro St. Louis (Metrolink did this? Who knows).--75.0.32.244 (talk) 23:55, 27 August 2011 (UTC)

Several Missing Counties added
I checked the Census Bureu site, and several counties listed in the St Louis Metro over in IL were missing here. (Perhaps they were just added in 04?). We need a new map that includes them. The map is also missing Washington County, MO which was also added in 2004 but was already in the text. Jon 18:37, 30 May 2007 (UTC)


 * I have also added an expansion request to the article to have the tables updated to incude these counties. Jon 18:40, 30 May 2007 (UTC)


 * I noticed there was a section expand tag and replaced the article expand request with a section expand request. Jon 14:01, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

shouldn't we add a CMSA line?
I was comparing this with the Kansas City Metro Article, and noticed that article also mentions the CMSA and the Micro SA it includes. It seems to me that either this article should include a reference to the Micro SA included in St Louis CMSA or else the Kansas City article shouldn't mentioned its Micro SAs. Jon 18:06, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

Where is Monroe County??
Monroe County Illinois is part of the St Louis MSA but isn't mentioned. This is a fast-growing countty and not new to the MSA by any means. Why is it omitted from the entire article? 76.228.227.118 (talk) 04:31, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

Historical MSA Population Figures
To my knowledge, the St. Louis MSA has never had a population of 3.4 million as suggested by this article. Holding the current 16-county MSA area (dating to 2010) constant, the population in 1960 would be around 2.5 million. What is the source for these historical population figures, and what counties do they take in? 66.143.156.40 (talk) 13:49, 25 June 2014 (UTC)Matt M.

The governments data is completely wrong
I've been here for the better part of 50 years and Illinois is not a part of St. Louis. The source material here is wrong. St. Louis MO-IL?? Never heard of such a thing. St. Louis, IL doesn't exist. East St. Louis is a completely unrelated city. Other Illinois cities are a trip (distance). I don't know when this started but it totally shouldn't have. Ask people on the Missouri side for reliable St. Louis information. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Stlouisnative22 (talk • contribs) 22:17, 10 May 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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Inset map and county list are way out of sync
This seems to have been going on for years. Is there no map available to match the county list in the text? Barefoot through the chollas (talk) 15:20, 29 June 2020 (UTC)
 * I had the same issue over at Kansas City Metropolitan Area. I will put in a request to have the Graphics Lab Map Workshop produce an updated map. Grey Wanderer (talk) 15:46, 29 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Excellent! Barefoot through the chollas (talk) 00:32, 30 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Almost two years later and the problem remains -- counties listed repeatedly in the text are not found on the map. The oddest lacuna is the gaping hole for Calhoun County IL, but the map needs expansion to include all that are missing. Barefoot through the chollas (talk) 15:30, 11 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Another year later, same problem. The map should be replaced or removed. Barefoot through the chollas (talk) 12:29, 23 May 2023 (UTC)

Where is St. Francois County
I noticed that even that the big CSA with St. Francois County redirects here, St. Francois County is nowhere to be found on this article Rimnu (talk) 19:17, 29 July 2023 (UTC)


 * The somewhat over-enthusiastic "St. Louis–St. Charles–Farmington, MO–IL combined statistical area" includes St. Francois County. It's a judgement call as to whether that CSA even needs to be mentioned in this article -- stretching Greater St. Louis to include e.g. Bonne Terre seems a bit much. Barefoot through the chollas (talk) 16:02, 30 July 2023 (UTC)