Rural Urban Data

HDPulse uses rural urban data from the USDA. For more information on how each county's status is determined, please visit rural urban continuum codes. 2023 Rural Urban codes are used for all data except for Connecticut, which is still using 2013 codes.

On this site, we use the rural urban data in different ways.

Information on rates:

• United States: The US rate is comprised of either all counties, just the rural counties, or just the urban counties.
• States: State rates are comprised of either all counties, just the rural counties, or just the urban counties in that state.
• Counties: County data is comprised of all data in the county. The county itself is designated either rural or urban.

Information on viewing (filtering) the data:

• Map: The map will only display counties that are the type selected. States are all displayed because they have different rates for the different types.
• Table: The table will only list counties that are the type selected. States are all listed because they have different rates for the different types.
• Historical Trends: The graph will allow for comparison between all, rural, and urban trends in a chosen geographical area.
• 5 Year Rate Changes: The graph will display the chosen data type rate changes for the chosen geographical area.
• Rate/Trend Comparison: If comparing counties, only the counties for the type selected will be displayed. If comparing causes of death, you can choose all, rural, or urban. If you are comparing within a county, however, that option is not available because the county is either urban or rural and you cannot see different types within it.

Note:
We will categorize Puerto Rico as an urban area for the entire territory because: we do not have sub-territory data available for Puerto Rico, 90% of the population is in urban areas, and most of the sub-territory areas of Puerto Rico have an urban designation in the rural urban continuum codes.