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McKINNEY ACT PROGRAMS IN NONMETRO AREAS: HOW FAR DO THEY REACH?
PART TWO: CASE STUDIES
© Housing Assistance Council, 1995
Permission is granted ONLY to nonprofit
community-based organizations to reproduce and/or adapt this document, and only for their own use.
"RURAL" AND "URBAN"
The Census Bureau defines "urban" for the 1990 census as comprising all territory,
population, and housing units in urbanized areas [see below] and in places of
2,5000 or more persons outside urbanized areas. More specifically, "urban"
consists of territory, persons, and housing units in:
- Places of 2,500 or more persons incorporated as cities, villages,
boroughs (except in the six New England States, New York, and
Wisconsin), but excluding the rural portions of "extended cities."
- Census designated places of 2,500 or more persons.
- Other territory, incorporated or unincorporated, included in
urbanized areas.
Territory, population, and housing units not classified as urban constitute "rural."6
The Census Bureau delineates urbanized areas (UA's) to provide a better separation
of urban and rural territory, population, and housing in the vicinity of large places.
A UA comprises one or more places ("central place") and the adjacent densely
settled surrounding territory ("urban fringe") that together have a minimum of
50,000 persons. The urban fringe generally consists of contiguous territory having
a density of [at] least 1,000 persons per square mile. . . .7
The following table provides 1990 census population counts for rural and urban areas in York
County, Maine and the eight counties that make up the Southwest Human Resource Agency's service
area.
1990 Rural and Urban Populations
(Number of persons and percent of total)
| County, State |
Total
Population |
Rural
Population |
Urban
Population |
# |
# |
% |
# |
% |
| York County, ME |
164,587 |
82,867 |
50.4 |
81,720 |
49.7 |
| Chester County, TN |
12,819 |
8,039 |
62.7 |
4,780 |
37.3 |
| Decatur County, TN |
10,472 |
10,472 |
100.0 |
0 |
0.0 |
| Hardeman County, TN |
23,377 |
17,480 |
74.5 |
5,969 |
25.5 |
| Hardin County, TN |
22,633 |
16,086 |
71.1 |
5,647 |
28.9 |
| Haywood County, TN |
19,437 |
9,418 |
48.5 |
10,019 |
51.6 |
| Henderson County, TN |
21,844 |
16,034 |
73.4 |
5,810 |
26.6 |
| Madison County, TN |
77,982 |
24,934 |
32.0 |
53,048 |
68.0 |
| McNairy County, TN |
22,422 |
18,584 |
82.9 |
3,838 |
17.1 |
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census
RURAL-URBAN CONTINUUM CODE FOR METRO AND NONMETRO COUNTIES
The Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture has developed a
code for 10 classifications that describe a county by degree of urbanization and nearness to a metro
area. The classifications for this code follow.
Metro counties
0
Central counties of metro areas of 1 million population or more
1
Fringe counties of metro areas of 1 million population or more
2
Counties in metro areas of 250,000 to 1 million population
3
Counties in metro areas of fewer than 250,000 population
Nonmetro counties
4
Urban population of 20,000 or more, adjacent to a metro area
5
Urban population of 20,000 or more, not adjacent to a metro area
6
Urban population of 2,500 to 19,999, adjacent to a metro area
7
Urban population of 2,500 to 19,999, not adjacent to a metro area
8
Rural or fewer than 2,500 urban population, adjacent to a metro area
9
Rural or fewer than 2,500 urban population, not adjacent to a metro area8
York County, Maine was classified as a number 4 county in 1990. The following map illustrates the
classifications for the eight counties served by Southwest Human Resource Agency of Tennessee
as of April 1990.
Southwest Human Resource Agency Service Area
County Rural Urban
Continuum Classifications 
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