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Census 2000 Urban and Rural Classification

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Welcome to the U.S. Census Bureau's Urban and Rural Classification Web page. At this site you will be able to locate information about the Census 2000 urban and rural delineations and to review the criteria the Census Bureau used to delineate urban and rural areas based on the results of Census 2000.

The Census Bureau identifies and tabulates data for the urban and rural populations and their associated areas solely for the presentation and comparison of census statistical data. If a federal, state, local, or tribal agency uses these urban and rural criteria in a nonstatistical program, it is that agency's responsibility to ensure that the results are appropriate for such use. It also is that agency's responsibility to ensure that it has provided the necessary tools for use in that agency's programs.

The Census Bureau will be glad to answer questions about the Census 2000 urban and rural criteria and products. However, the Census Bureau is not qualified to provide information or assistance to users concerning the uses of urban and/or rural data in the programs of other agencies, nor does it have the resources to perform research to determine whether or not a locality or specific address is inside or outside an urbanized area or urban cluster.

The Census Bureau has produced several products to help users locate Census 2000 Urban Areas and Urban Clusters. See below for more information.

Urban and Rural Classification

For Census 2000, the Census Bureau classifies as "urban" all territory, population, and housing units located within an urbanized area (UA) or an urban cluster (UC). It delineates UA and UC boundaries to encompass densely settled territory, which consists of:

• core census block groups or blocks that have a population density of at least 1,000 people per square mile and

• surrounding census blocks that have an overall density of at least 500 people per square mile

In addition, under certain conditions, less densely settled territory may be part of each UA or UC.

The Census Bureau's classification of "rural" consists of all territory, population, and housing units located outside of UAs and UCs. The rural component contains both place and nonplace territory. Geographic entities, such as census tracts, counties, metropolitan areas, and the territory outside metropolitan areas, often are "split" between urban and rural territory, and the population and housing units they contain often are partly classified as urban and partly classified as rural.

Contact Information

NOTE: Census Bureau staff cannot answer specific questions about which areas or addresses are inside or outside urbanized areas or urban clusters. Users will need to determine that information themselves from the Census Bureau products described earlier on this Web page.