Background
The classification of people and territory as rural poses a
number of challenges for researchers, policy makers, and program
managers throughout the Federal system and beyond. Most Americans
share a common image of rural-open countryside and small towns at
some distance from large urban centers-but disagree on where and
how to draw the line between rural and urban. Drawing such a line
requires answering two questions:
- At what population threshold do rural places become urban?
- Where along the urban periphery do suburbs give way to rural
territory?
Answers to these questions vary substantially among the
profusion of rural definitions currently in use. Population
thresholds dividing rural from urban locations range from 2,500 to
50,000. Methods of designating
the urban periphery range from the use of municipal boundaries to
definitions based on counties. Definitions based on municipal
boundaries may classify as rural much of what would typically be
considered suburban. Definitions that delineate the urban periphery
based on counties may include extensive segments of a county that
many would consider rural.
We have selected a representative set of nine alternative rural
definitions and compare social and economic indicators from the
2000 decennial census across the nine definitions. We chose
socioeconomic indicators (population, education, poverty, etc.)
that are commonly used to highlight differences between urban and
rural areas.