Measuring Rurality

Overview• ERS has developed several classifications to measure

rurality and assess the economic and social diversity of rural America.

• Rural-Urban Continuum Codes—Classifies U.S. counties by urbanization and nearness to a metropolitan area.

• Urban Influence Codes—Classifies U.S. counties by size of the largest city and nearness to metropolitan and micropolitan areas.

• Rural-Urban Commuting Area Codes (RUCA)—Classifies U.S. census tracts using measures of urbanization, population density, and daily commuting.

• The ERS Typology Code -- classifies rural counties by their economic and policy types.

U.S. Census Bureau definitions

• Rural areas comprise open country and settlements with fewer than 2,500 residents.

• Urban areas comprise larger places and densely settled areas around them. (That do not necessarily follow municipal boundaries).

• Most counties, whether metropolitan or non-metropolitan, contain a combination of urban and rural populations.

Definitions (areas)

Urban areas are of two types:• Urbanized areas

– Contain urban nucleus of 50,000 or more people. (They may or may not contain any individual cities of 50,000 or more)

– And must have a core with a population density of 1,000 persons per square mile and may contain adjoining territory with at least 500 persons per square mile.

• Urban clusters– Have the same density criteria but are 2,899-50,000

in population• Rural areas consist of all territory located outside

of urbanized areas and urban clusters.

Counties:

• Counties are typically active political jurisdictions

• Usually have programmatic importance at the Federal and State level

• Estimates of population, employment, and income are available for them annually.

• They are also frequently used as basic building blocks for areas of economic and social integration.

Definitions (Counties)

• Metro and non-metro areas are defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

• Metro counties are central counties with one or more urbanized areas

• Or outlying counties that are economically tied to the core counties as measured by work commuting. – Outlying counties are included if 25 percent of workers living in

the county commute to the central counties, – or if 25 percent of the employment in the county consists of

workers coming out from the central counties—the so-called "reverse" commuting pattern.

• Non-metropolitan counties are all counties that do not fit this definition

County status

2003 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes

Metro counties:

1 Counties in metro areas of 1 million population or more

2 Counties in metro areas of 250,000 to 1 million population

3 Counties in metro areas of fewer than 250,000 population

Nonmetro counties:

4 Urban population of 20,000 or more, adjacent to a metro area

5 Urban population of 20,000 or more, not adjacent to a metro area

6 Urban population of 2,500 to 19,999, adjacent to a metro area

7 Urban population of 2,500 to 19,999, not adjacent to a metro area

8Completely rural or less than 2,500 urban population, adjacent to a

metro area

9Completely rural or less than 2,500 urban population, not adjacent to a

metro area

2003 Urban Influence Codes

Code Descriptions counties population area density

Metropolitan counties:

1 In large metro area of 1+ million residents 413 149,224,067 267,423 558.0

2In small metro area of less than 1 million

residents676 83,355,873 629,671 132.4

Non-metropolitan counties:

3 Micropolitan area adjacent to large metro area 92 5,147,233 94,178 54.7

4 Noncore adjacent to large metro area 123 2,364,159 88,229 26.8

5 Micropolitan area adjacent to small metro area 301 14,668,144 285,527 51.4

6Noncore adjacent to small metro area and

contains a town of at least 2,500 residents358 7,855,590 334,361 23.5

7Noncore adjacent to small metro area and does

not contain a town of at least 2,500 residents185 1,879,264 336,499 5.6

8 Micropolitan area not adjacent to a metro area 282 9,139,821 338,256 27.0

9Noncore adjacent to micro area and contains a

town of at least 2,500 residents201 3,227,833 193,200 16.7

10Noncore adjacent to micro area and does not

contain a town of at least 2,500 residents198 1,313,175 196,269 6.7

11Noncore not adjacent to metro or micro area and

contains a town of at least 2,500 residents138 2,247,189 488,521 4.6

12Noncore not adjacent to metro or micro area and

does not contain a town of at least 2,500 residents

174 999,558 285,304 3.5

Links

• Measuring rurality

• Rural trends (amber waves and Rural America at a glance)

• Data sources on codes and other measures