The Census Bureau's urban-rural classification is fundamentally a delineation of geographical areas, identifying both individual urban areas and the rural areas of the nation. The Census Bureau's urban areas represent densely developed territory, and encompass residential, commercial, and other non-residential urban land uses.

For the 2020 Census, an urban area comprises a densely settled core of census blocks that meet minimum housing unit density and/or population density requirements. This includes adjacent territory containing non-residential urban land uses. To qualify as an urban area, the territory identified according to criteria must encompass at least 2,000 housing units or have a population of at least 5,000.

"Rural" encompasses all population, housing, and territory not included within an urban area. "Suburban" is not classified by the US Census Bureau.

It is important to note that the U.S. Census Bureau defines urban and rural at the block level. Therefore, geographic entities, including cities, towns and census tracts, may be urban (located wholly within an urban area), rural (located entirely outside an urban area), or contain both urban and rural territory (only the densely settled portion of the city is within an urban area).

For additional information, please see our Urban and Rural website.