The 2013 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes form a classification scheme that distinguishes metropolitan counties by the population size of their metro area, and nonmetropolitan counties by degree of urbanization and adjacency to a metro area. The official Office of Management and Budget (OMB) metro and nonmetro categories have been subdivided into three metro and six nonmetro categories. Each county in the U.S. is assigned one of the 9 codes. This scheme allows researchers to break county data into finer residential groups, beyond metro and nonmetro, particularly for the analysis of trends in nonmetro areas that are related to population density and metro influence. The Rural-Urban Continuum Codes were originally developed in 1974. They have been updated each decennial since (1983, 1993, 2003, 2013), and slightly revised in 1988. Note that the 2013 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes are not directly comparable with the codes prior to 2000 because of the new methodology used in developing the 2000 metropolitan areas. See the Documentation for details and a map of the codes. An update of the Rural-Urban Continuum Codes is planned for mid-2023.

The table RUCC 2023 County Codes is part of the dataset USDA RUCA RUCC Codes, available at https://stanford.redivis.com/datasets/fq6p-db90f3nvv. It contains 3235 rows across 6 variables.

Abstract

Rural Urban Continuum Codes (RUCC) Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. (January 2024). Rural-Urban Continuum Codes.

The 2013 data and the 2023 data were downloaded from the USDA website on October 28, 2025 and are available here: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/rural-urban-continuum-codes

The USDA provides RUCC codes at the county.

Rural Urban Commuting Area Codes (RUCA) Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. 2020 Rural-Urban Commuting Area Codes, July 2025.

The 2010 data were downloaded from the USDA website on August 23, 2023.
The 2020 data were downloaded from the USDA website on October 20, 2025.

All tables can be accessed directly from the website: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/rural-urban-commuting-area-codes/

The USDA provides RUCA values for zip codes as well as Census Tracts. See website for additional documentation.

Methodology

The following table was taken from the USDA website: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/rural-urban-commuting-area-codes/documentation

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The table RUCA 2020 ZipCode is part of the dataset USDA RUCA RUCC Codes, available at https://stanford.redivis.com/datasets/fq6p-db90f3nvv. It contains 41146 rows across 6 variables.

The table RUCA 2010 Census Tract is part of the dataset USDA RUCA RUCC Codes, available at https://stanford.redivis.com/datasets/fq6p-db90f3nvv. It contains 74002 rows across 9 variables.

Logistic regression model assessing associations between participant Rural-Urban Continuum Code (RUCC) and reported exercise change.

This is an auto-generated index table corresponding to a folder of files in this dataset with the same name. This table can be used to extract a subset of files based on their metadata, which can then be used for further analysis. You can view the contents of specific files by navigating to the "cells" tab and clicking on an individual file_kd.

We used individual-level death data to estimate county-level life expectancy at 25 (e25) for Whites, Black, AIAN and Asian in the contiguous US for 2000-2005. Race-sex-stratified models were used to examine the associations among e25, rurality and specific race proportion, adjusted for socioeconomic variables. Individual death data from the National Center for Health Statistics were aggregated as death counts into five-year age groups by county and race-sex groups for the contiguous US for years 2000-2005 (National Center for Health Statistics 2000-2005). We used bridged-race population estimates to calculate five-year mortality rates. The bridged population data mapped 31 race categories, as specified in the 1997 Office of Management and Budget standards for the collection of data on race and ethnicity, to the four race categories specified under the 1977 standards (the same as race categories in mortality registration) (Ingram et al. 2003). The urban-rural gradient was represented by the 2003 Rural Urban Continuum Codes (RUCC), which distinguished metropolitan counties by population size, and nonmetropolitan counties by degree of urbanization and adjacency to a metro area (United States Department of Agriculture 2016). We obtained county-level sociodemographic data for 2000-2005 from the US Census Bureau. These included median household income, percent of population attaining greater than high school education (high school%), and percent of county occupied rental units (rent%). We obtained county violent crime from Uniform Crime Reports and used it to calculate mean number of violent crimes per capita (Federal Bureau of Investigation 2010). This dataset is not publicly accessible because: EPA cannot release personally identifiable information regarding living individuals, according to the Privacy Act and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This dataset contains information about human research subjects. Because there is potential to identify individual participants and disclose personal information, either alone or in combination with other datasets, individual level data are not appropriate to post for public access. Restricted access may be granted to authorized persons by contacting the party listed. It can be accessed through the following means: Request to author. Format: Data are stored as csv files. This dataset is associated with the following publication: Jian, Y., L. Neas, L. Messer, C. Gray, J. Jagai, K. Rappazzo, and D. Lobdell. Divergent trends in life expectancy across the rural-urban gradient among races in the contiguous United States. International Journal of Public Health. Springer Basel AG, Basel, SWITZERLAND, 64(9): 1367-1374, (2019).