Comment: Rural Definition – Daily Yonder

Do you live in a rural area? For most of us, this question is relatively easy to answer. We can just look outside our windows and make an estimate. However, this simple question is complicated when you consider the many definitions of the “rural” that currently exists in the federal government.

There is no standard definition of the “rural” and whether you live in a rural area depends on who you ask. This makes the definition of ruraly complicated and has a real impact on our understanding of rural America and the ability to ensure that some rural communities have access to funding for grants to deal with problems in their community.

The federal government must work to correct this problem.

Perhaps the most decisive example of this can be found in San Bernardino County, California, the largest county (measured by an area) in the United States, approximately the size of West Virginia. There are deserts, mountains and scattered urban landscapes. The bigger part of the district is poorly settled with the greater part of its population, residing in a relatively small strip of land between the Los Angeles County Line and San Bernardino. For a casual observer, the bigger part of the cities of the mountain and the deserts in San Bernardino County looks 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, about 80 miles from the city of San Bernardino. Is Joshua Tree Rural? It’s up to it. The Health Center Information Center has a resource that you can use to determine if your location is rural. If you enter the address for the visitors Center for Joshua National Park (655 Park, Joshua Tree, California 92252), you will get different results.

Any agency that defines the “rural” at the county level (such as the Budget Management and Definition Office) will mark Joshua Tree as a metropolitan. In fact, the Economic Research Service has numerous “rural” indicators that operate at the county level, and they both define a joshua tree as a capital. However, the rural codes ‘codes’ codes ‘codes’ codes (which works at the level of the tract) recognizes the Joshua Tree as Rural, as well as the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy.

Joshua’s tree is not an anomaly. Also think about needles, a relatively isolated mountain city near the boundaries of Nevada and Arizona. The needles are about 200 miles from the city of San Bernardino. By any reason, it is far beyond the influence of any city. If the San Bernardino County was a state, it would undoubtedly be a rural community. However, he has exactly the same profile as a joshua tree. Numerous federal agencies would classify it as a capital.

This has real consequences. For example, federal agencies use different definitions of rural areas when they provide opportunities for grants. An isolated city in San Bernardino County may not be eligible for one opportunity, as it is located in Metro County, but is eligible for another, as they are located in a “village” census of the population. It really depends on which definition of the rural federal agency chooses to accept. This can create a confusing landscape for local authorities and for non -profit. It also means that some options are simply inaccessible to these communities. It also distorts every count of rural people. 15-20% of Americans live in rural communities, but these different definitions make it difficult to land an exact percentage.

The federal government should work to achieve uniformity in its definition of rural America and I would recommend using definitions that focus on the level of census. It is important to ensure that all Americans in rural areas are not only accurately counted, but also provide access to the resources needed to deal with their communities.

Christopher Chavis grew up in the village district Robson, North Carolina, and is a frequent writer and speaker for the history of baseball and the problems of access to rural areas. He is a citizen of the Lumbi tribe in North Carolina. He is also a former director of politics at the National Health Council of India.

Connected