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Abstract:
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One of the biggest issues plaguing consistent analysis of U.S. geographic disparities is the variety of measures that classify regions as 'urban' or 'rural'. While the geographic unit itself does present some challenges (e.g. states versus counties versus zip codes versus census tracts) much of the variation comes in the many different ways regions are classified. Some metrics are designed to separate urban versus non-urban and tend to classify smaller suburban areas as more associated with urban locales. In contrast other measures tend to divide regions more as rural (i.e. remote) and non-rural. Both mechanisms struggle to deal with the regions that fall somewhere in between. While there does exist some metrics such as Rural-Urban Continuum Codes that classify areas into a nine-point range based on rurality, other issues arise. This round table is designed to introduce these different metrics to newcomers and provide some background. Most metrics are based on population density; therefore some time will be given to brainstorming alternatives based on other features such as distance metrics, amenity density, health care access, broadband internet availability, and others.
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