Step-by-step process to create the Steamboat Springs, CO, Commuting Zone

Illustration of the iterative steps used by the cluster analysis create the Steamboat Springs, CO Commuting Zone (CZ 68). In Step 1, Moffat and Routt Counties are grouped together into a cluster because their distance metric is the lowest of the county pairs (indicating a stronger connection) at 0.69. The connection between the new cluster and Rio Blanco County is then recalculated by averaging the connection between Rio Blanco County and Moffat County and between Rio Blanco County and Routt County. In Step 2, the connection between Rio Blanco County, CO and the cluster is 0.92. Since the connection of Rio Blanco County to the cluster is less than 0.977, Rio Blanco is considered to have a strong enough connection to be added to the cluster. There are no other adjacent counties with a strong enough connection to be added to the cluster, so the final result, shown in Step 3, is the Steamboat Springs, CO Commuting Zone, CZ 68.