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NAEP TechnicaL DocumentationPrimary Sampling Unit (PSU) Generation: Metropolitan Statistical Areas for the 2016 Assessment
Primary sampling units (PSUs) for NAEP are classified as either metropolitan statistical areas1 (metro areas) or non-metro areas. Metro area PSUs are those that are made up of counties in metro areas.
Each metro area constitutes a separate PSU, except when it crosses census region boundaries. Such metro areas are split along regional boundaries with each regional part considered its own distinct PSU. For example, the Louisville-Jefferson County, KY-IN metro area was partitioned into two PSUs, one for the counties in Kentucky which are part of the South region and the other for counties in Indiana which are part of the Midwest region.
In total, there were 372 metro area PSUs, 29 of which were defined as certainty PSUs. The remaining 343 metro area PSUs, covering a total of 859 counties, constituted the noncertainty portion of the metro area PSU sampling frame. The table below presents the number of PSUs, the number of counties represented, and the estimated number of youths (total and mean per PSU) in noncertainty metro area PSUs by census region. These estimates come from the county-level estimates of numbers of persons aged 0 to 17 from the 2013 U.S. Census Bureau population estimates.
| Census region | PSUs | Counties | Youths | Mean number of youths per PSU |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2016 Assessment. | ||||
| Total | 343 | 859 | 29,976,597 | 87,395 |
| Northeast | 43 | 84 | 4,489,722 | 104,412 |
| Midwest | 91 | 229 | 7,022,072 | 77,166 |
| South | 141 | 454 | 12,972,836 | 92,006 |
| West | 68 | 92 | 5,491,967 | 80,764 |
1 Based on the 2009 metro area definitions, the most recent available metro area definitions at the time of PSU construction, from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB Bulletin No. 10-02).
Last updated 10 February 2022 (SK)