Metropolitan Sprawl-Compactness (MSA) Index is a continuous measure of the degree of sprawl in 233 metropolitan areas and divisions ranging from 54.32 for the most sprawling MSA (Riverside, CA) to 242.91 for the most compact MSA (San Francisco, CA) in the US. The Index Combines 21 built environmental measures in four distinct dimensions of sprawl. The overall score is standardized to have a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 25. The more compact metros have an index score of above 100, while the more sprawling have values below 100. The map below presents the overall index score as well as four (dimension) scores for 995 metro areas in the U.S. New York, NY metro division and Philadelphia, PA metro division are other top compact areas while Atlanta, GA and Nashville, TN rank among the most sprawling. 

County Sprawl-Compactness index places sprawling development at one end of a continuous scale and compact development at the other. The index incorporates 16 measures of the built environment and captures four distinct dimensions of sprawl. The map below presents the overall index score as well as four (dimension) scores for 995 urban counties in the U.S. The overall score is standardized to have a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 25. The more compact counties have an index score of above 100, while the more sprawling have values below 100. 

The concept of sprawl naturally brings to mind large geographic areas. Yet, we know from the travel and public health literatures that there is a demand in the research and practice community for built environmental metrics at the sub-county level, what might be described as the community or neighborhood scale. We have derived sprawl-like metrics for census tracts within metropolitan areas, using the same type of variables as in larger area analyses, and once again, transformed it to an index with the mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 25. The more compact census tracts have an index score of above 100, while the more sprawling ones have values below 100.