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What's in a name? A hyphen According to the U.S. government, metropolitan statistical areas such as ours are to be known by the name of the largest city. For a metro area to be hyphenated (for example, Medford-Ashland), the secondary city either must have a population of more than 50,000 or a population greater than 50 percent of the primary city. Since Ashland meets neither of these criteria, why isn't our area called just "Medford"? -- Hal W., Medford Good question, but the criteria you mention are not the criteria that the Census Bureau used when it added Ashland to the name of the Medford Metropolitan Statistical Area in January 1993. (The area itself consists of all of Jackson County, but federal rules say it must be named after its principal city and secondary cities.) According to Trudy Suchan, a geographer with the bureau's population distribution branch in Washington, D.C., Ashland qualified for inclusion as a result of the 1990 census. She said its population was at least 15,000, it was at least one-third Medford's 1990 population of 46,951, and its employment-residence ratio and its percentage of employed residents working in the city exceeded the standards that the bureau set for the 1990 census. To check the standards, visit the bureau's Web site at www.census.gov/population/ www.estimates/masrp.html A proposed change for the 2000 census would allow the bureau to attach the names of the second and third largest cities to the principal city in the MSA without additional criteria. Can anyone say Medford-Ashland-Central Point Metropolitan Statistical Area? (Send your questions to "Since You Asked," Mail Tribune Newsroom, P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501; or by fax to (541) 776-4376; or by e-mail to: [email protected] Please include your name, address and phone number for verification.) Today's News Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA