“Rural” for purposes if federal funding is now defined many ways. Federal programs are tied to various population categories and differing criteria at a number of federal agencies.
The maps below show some of the many different ways that “rural” is designated in California. To find maps like these of your state, go here.
I. Based on Census Places — “Rural” may be defined three ways, as
a) places with pop. less than 2500 (white areas only)
b) places with pop. less than 10,000 (white and pale pink areas only)
c) places with pop. less than 50,000 (white, pale pink and red areas)
Urban areas (pop. 50,00 and more) are shown in brown
II. Based on Census Urban Areas — “Rural” may be defined three ways as
a) places with pop. less than 2500 (white areas only)
b) places with pop. less than 10,000 (white and pale green areas only)
c) places with pop. less than 50,000 (white, pale green and medium green areas)
Urban areas (pop. 50,00 and more) are shown in dark green
III. Based on Office of Management and Budget (OMB) terminology
— “Rural” is defined as non-metro (non-metro counties in white)
OMB metro counties are shown as brown
IV. Based on Economic Research Service’s Rural/Urban Commuting Areas (RUCA) — “Rural” is designated as areas with RUCA codes 4-10 (shown in white)
Urban areas are those with RUCA codes 1-3 (shown in purple)
V. Based on USDA Business and Industry ineligible locations ““ “Rural” is defined as
Census Places with pop. over 50,000 and their adjacent and contiguous urbanized areas.
Rural places in white; urban in blue-green
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