measuring rurality. overview ers has developed several classifications to measure rurality and...

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