Description and Maps
County Economic Types
The following types are mutually exclusive.
Farming-Dependent
Mining-Dependent
Manufacturing-Dependent
Federal/State Government-Dependent
Services-Dependent
Nonspecialized
County Policy Types
The following types are not mutually exclusive.
Housing Stress
Low-Education
Low-Employment
Persistent Poverty and Persistent Child Poverty
Population Loss
Nonmetro Recreation
Retirement Destination
County Economic Types
Farming-Dependent
Farming-dependent (440 total, 403 nonmetro) counties--either 15
percent or more of average annual labor and proprietors' earnings
derived from farming during 1998-2000 or 15 percent or more of
employed residents worked in farm occupations in 2000. Note that a
few counties have changed farm dependency status from the
preliminary group posted in May 2004. See the documentation
for an explanation of these changes.
Mining-Dependent
Mining-dependent (128 total, 113 nonmetro) counties--15 percent
or more of average annual labor and proprietors' earnings derived
from mining during 1998-2000.
Manufacturing-Dependent
Manufacturing-dependent (905 total, 585 nonmetro) counties--25
percent or more of average annual labor and proprietors' earnings
derived from manufacturing during 1998-2000.
Federal/State
Government-Dependent
Federal/State government-dependent (381 total, 222 nonmetro)
counties--15 percent or more of average annual labor and
proprietors' earnings derived from Federal and State government
during 1998-2000.
Services-Dependent
Services-dependent (340 total, 114 nonmetro) counties--45
percent or more of average annual labor and proprietors' earnings
derived from services (SIC categories of retail trade; finance,
insurance, and real estate; and services) during 1998-2000.
Nonspecialized
Nonspecialized (948 total, 615 nonmetro) counties--did not meet
the dependence threshold for any one of the above industries.
County Policy Types
The following types are mutually exclusive.
Housing Stress
Housing stress (537 total, 302 nonmetro) counties--30 percent or
more of households had one or more of these housing conditions in
2000: lacked complete plumbing, lacked complete kitchen, paid 30
percent or more of income for owner costs or rent, or had more than
1 person per room. See documentation for more details.
Low Education
Low-education (622 total, 499 nonmetro) counties--25 percent or
more of residents 25-64 years old had neither a high school diploma
nor GED in 2000.
Low Employment
Low-employment (460 total, 396 nonmetro) counties--less than 65
percent of residents 21-64 years old were employed in 2000.
Persistent Poverty
Persistent poverty (386 total, 340 nonmetro) counties--20
percent or more of residents were poor as measured by each of the
last 4 censuses, 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000.
Persistent Child Poverty
Persistent child poverty counties (734 total, 603 nonmetro)-20
percent or more of related children under 18 years old were poor as
measured by each of the last 4 censuses, 1970, 1980, 1990, and
2000.
Population Loss
Population loss (601
total, 532 nonmetro) counties--number of residents declined both
between the 1980 and 1990 censuses and between the 1990 and 2000
censuses.
Nonmetro Recreation
Nonmetro recreation (334 designated nonmetro in either 1993 or
2003, 34 were designated metro in 2003) counties--classified using
a combination of factors, including share of employment or share of
earnings in recreation-related industries in 1999, share of
seasonal or occasional use housing units in 2000, and per capita
receipts from motels and hotels in 1997. See the documentation
for more details.
Retirement Destination
Retirement destination (440 total, 277 nonmetro)
counties--number of residents 60 and older grew by 15 percent or
more between 1990 and 2000 due to inmigration.