In the last century, the U.S. population has become increasingly more urban. In 1910, the rural population was 54%; at the time of the 2010 Decennial Census, only 19% of the population lived in rural America. While the... [ view full abstract ]
In the last century, the U.S. population has become increasingly more urban. In 1910, the rural population was 54%; at the time of the 2010 Decennial Census, only 19% of the population lived in rural America. While the number of people living in urban areas have been on the rise, the majority of the land in the U.S. has remained rural. In 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau’s Urban Areas designation left 97% of the country’s land area rural.
Despite all of the statistics about the rural population, it is still difficult to define what makes a place rural. It could be low population density, the distance to an urban area or a feeling of isolation or remoteness. Federal agencies do not have a standard definition of rural; often it is the remainder after defining “Urban” or “Metropolitan” areas. The Census Bureau, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (USDA ERS) all have classifications that differ in geography and criteria.
Depending on the type of research or analysis conducted, these definitions offer varied data availability due to the geographic scales of the classifications. The Census Bureau’s Urban Areas provide data at the Census tract level. The OMB Core Based Statistical Areas’ Metropolitan and Micropolitan designations are county based. The USDA ERS has several rural classifications at county, zip code or census tract levels. This presentation will provide an overview of the relationship between these agencies’ classifications, while explaining their differences in geography and categorization.
