One’s position is only as strong as the information one uses to support it, no matter how worthwhile the endeavor. Making the case for housing assistance in rural America is no different. Understanding and presenting housing data effectively is a key element of advocating for families, seniors, and veterans in need. The ability to access and use data, such as the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, is a powerful tool. This workshop will help familiarize participants with accessing data and will present ways data can be used to most effectively advocate for rural housing needs.

1. ERS County Classifications and the Atlas
of Rural and Small Town America
Timothy S. Parker
USDA, Economic Research Service
2012 National Rural Housing Conference
December 6-7, 2012

2. Economic Research Service, USDA
The Economic Research Service (ERS) is the main source of economic
information and research from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The mission
of ERS is to inform and enhance public and private decision-making on economic
and policy issues related to agriculture, food, farming, natural resources, and
rural development. To accomplish this mission, highly trained economists and
social scientists develop and distribute a broad range of economic and other
social science information and analysis.
Three Research Divisions:
• Food Economics
• Market and Trade Economics
• Resource and Rural Economics

3. ERS County-level Classifications
• Rural-urban Continuum Codes
• Urban Influence Codes
• Typology Codes
• Economic Types
• Policy Types
• Natural Amenities Scale

4. 2003 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes
Metro Number of
Description
counties: Counties
1 413 Counties in metro areas of 1 million population or more
2 325 Counties in metro areas of 250,000 to 1 million population
3 351 Counties in metro areas of fewer than 250,000 population
Nonmetro counties:
4 218 Urban population of 20,000 or more, adjacent to a metro area
5 105 Urban population of 20,000 or more, not adjacent to a metro area
6 609 Urban population of 2,500 to 19,999, adjacent to a metro area
7 450 Urban population of 2,500 to 19,999, not adjacent to a metro area
Completely rural or less than 2,500 urban population, adjacent to a
8 235
metro area
Completely rural or less than 2,500 urban population, not adjacent
9 435
to a metro area

5. Rural-urban Continuum Codes, 2003

6. 2003 Urban Influence Codes
Code Description
Metropolitan counties:
1 In large metro area of 1+ million residents
2 In small metro area of less than 1 million residents
Nonmetropolitan counties:
3 Micropolitan area adjacent to large metro area
4 Noncore adjacent to large metro area
5 Micropolitan area adjacent to small metro area
6 Noncore adjacent to small metro area and contains a town of at least 2,500 residents
7 Noncore adjacent to small metro area and does not contain a town of at least 2,500 residents
8 Micropolitan area not adjacent to a metro area
9 Noncore adjacent to micro area and contains a town of at least 2,500 residents
10 Noncore adjacent to micro area and does not contain a town of at least 2,500 residents
11 Noncore not adjacent to metro or micro area and contains a town of at least 2,500 residents
Noncore not adjacent to metro or micro area and does not contain a town of at least 2,500
12
residents

7. Urban Influence Codes, 2003

8. ERS County Typology Codes
Economic Types, 2004

9. Policy Types
Persistent Poverty Counties, 1970-2000

10. Persistent Child Poverty Counties, 1970-2000

11. Low Employment Counties, 2000

12. Low Education Counties, 2000

13. Housing Stress Counties, 2000

14. Population Loss Counties, 1980-1990 and 1990-2000

15. Retirement Destination Counties, 2000

16. Natural amenities Scale

17. Atlas of Rural and Small-Town America
The Atlas of Rural and Small-Town America assembles statistics on four
broad categories of socioeconomic factors:
• People
• Jobs
• Agriculture
• County classifications
What can users do with the Atlas?
• View county-level maps for over 60 socioeconomic indicators
• View the entire country or zoom into specific regions, States, or county areas
• View a selected socioeconomic indicator just for counties of a certain type
• Print a version of the map or save the image in a graphics-file format that
may be added to documents or presentations
• Download a spreadsheet containing all the data for a selected county or for
all U.S. counties

18. Atlas of Rural and Small-Town America

19. For more Information
Atlas of Rural and Small-Town America:
http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/atlas-of-rural-and-small-town-
america.aspx
ERS County-level Classifications:
http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population.aspx
Census Bureau’s American Fact Finder:
http://factfinder2.census.gov
Tim Parker
tparker@ers.usda.gov