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Commentary: The Definition of Rural [1]

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Date: 2025-01-29

Do you live in a rural area? For most of us, that question is relatively easy to answer. We can simply look outside of our windows and make an assessment. This simple question, however, becomes complicated when you consider the many definitions of “rural” that currently exist within the federal government.

There is no standard definition of “rural” and whether you live in a rural area depends on who you ask. This makes defining rurality complicated and has real impacts on both our understanding of Rural America and the ability to ensure that some rural communities have access to grant funding to address the issues in their community.

The federal government must work to correct this issue.

Perhaps the most egregious example of this can be found in San Bernardino County, California, the largest county (as measured by area) in the United States, approximately the size of West Virginia. It has deserts, mountains, and sprawling cityscapes. Most of the county is sparsely settled with most of its population residing in a relatively small strip of land between the Los Angeles County line and the City of San Bernardino. To a casual observer, most of the mountain and desert towns in San Bernardino County would seem rural and according to some definitions, they are. The complication exists within the definitions that would classify these remote communities as “urban.”

Consider Joshua Tree National Park, which is in San Bernardino County, approximately 80 miles away from the City of San Bernardino. Is Joshua Tree rural? That depends. The Rural Health Information Hub has a resource that you can use to determine whether your location is rural. If you type in the address for Joshua Tree National Park’s visitor center (6554 Park Blvd, Joshua Tree, CA 92252), you are going to get a variety of results.

Any agency that defines “rural” at the county level (such as the Office of Management and Budget definition) is going to flag Joshua Tree as metropolitan. In fact, the Economic Research Service has multiple metrics for “rural” that operate at the county level, both designate Joshua Tree as metropolitan. However, the Economic Research Service’s Rural Urban Commuting Area code system (which operates on the Census Tract level) recognizes Joshua Tree as rural, as does the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy.

Joshua Tree is not an anomaly. Consider also Needles, a relatively isolated mountain town near the Nevada and Arizona borders. Needles is approximately 200 miles from the City of San Bernardino. By any reasonable metric, it is well outside of the influence of any city. If San Bernardino County were a state, it would unquestionably be a rural community. Despite this however, it has the exact same profile as Joshua Tree. Multiple federal agencies would classify it as metropolitan.

This has real consequences. For example, federal agencies use a variety of definitions of rural when making grant opportunities available. An isolated town in San Bernardino County may not be eligible for one opportunity because it is located in a “metro” county but be eligible for another because they are located in a “rural” Census tract. It really depends on which definition of rural a federal agency chooses to adopt. This can create a confusing landscape for local governments and non-profits. It also means that some opportunities are simply unavailable to these communities. It also distorts any count of rural people. 15-20% of Americans live in rural communities, but these different definitions make it difficult to land on an exact percentage.

The federal government must work to achieve uniformity in its definition of Rural America, and I would recommend using definitions that focus on the Census tract level. It is important to ensure that all Rural Americans are not only accurately counted but afforded access to the resources necessary to address their communities.

Christopher Chavis grew up in rural Robeson County, North Carolina, and is a frequent writer and speaker on baseball history and rural access-to-justice issues. He is a citizen of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. He is also a former Policy Director at the National Indian Health Board.

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