A functional classification of metropolitan communities

Five major approaches to the functional classification of communities have been offered. Although most of them allow the recognition of a community as specialized in more than one function, their application necessitates consideration of the several individual functions one at a time. This paper offers a method for classification that takes account of the entire configuration of selected functions. Eight industrial groups were used in determining which SMSA’s of 1960 had similar configurations of functional activity. The procedure for determining this similarity, which reduced the job to a manageable size, is described as are the distinguishing functional configurations.