The rural-urban commuting area codes (RUCA) classify U.S. census tracts using measures of urbanization, population density, and daily commuting from the decennial census.

The most recent RUCA codes are based on data from the 2000 decennial census. The classification contains two levels. Whole numbers (1-10) delineate metropolitan, micropolitan, small town, and rural commuting areas based on the size and direction of the primary (largest) commuting flows. These 10 codes are further subdivided to permit stricter or looser delimitation of commuting areas, based on secondary (second largest) commuting flows. The approach errs in the direction of more codes, providing flexibility in combining levels to meet varying definitional needs and preferences.

The 1990 codes are similarly defined. However, the Census Bureau's methods of defining urban cores and clusters changed between the two censuses. And, census tracts changed in number and shapes. The 2000 rural-urban commuting codes are not directly comparable with the 1990 codes because of these differences.

An update of the Rural-Urban Commuting Area Codes is planned for late 2013.This record was taken from the USDA Enterprise Data Inventory that feeds into the https://data.gov catalog. Data for this record includes the following resources: Webpage with links to Excel files For complete information, please visit https://data.gov.

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. To qualify as an urban area, the territory identified according to criteria must have at least 5,000 people or 2,000 housing units. The 2020 Census changed how urban areas are determined from the 2010 criteria. The population requirement was increased to 5,000 people from 2,500 in 2010. This value is now determined by housing unit density instead of population density. Urban areas can now also be defined by the number of housing units present. Finally, the 2020 Census does not distinguish different types of urban areas. Areas are simply urban or rural.This layer was originally downloaded from the US Census Bureau website and clipped to the Stark County boundary. For more information on urban and rural classification and criteria, visit Redefining Urban Areas following the 2020 Census.

Refer to the current geographies boundaries table for a list of all current geographies and recent updates.

This dataset is the definitive version of the annually released urban rural (UR) boundaries as at 1 January 2025 as defined by Stats NZ, clipped to the coastline. This clipped version has been created for cartographic purposes and so does not fully represent the official full extent boundaries. This version contains 689 UR areas, including 195 urban areas and 402 rural settlements.

Urban rural (UR) is an output geography that classifies New Zealand into areas that share common urban or rural characteristics and is used to disseminate a broad range of Stats NZ’s social, demographic and economic statistics.

The UR separately identifies urban areas, rural settlements, other rural areas, and water areas. Urban areas and rural settlements are form-based geographies delineated by the inspection of aerial imagery, local government land designations on district plan maps, address registers, property title data, and any other available information. However, because the underlying meshblock pattern is used to define the geographies, boundaries may not align exactly with local government land designations or what can be seen in aerial images. Other rural areas, and bodies of water represent areas not included within an urban area.

Urban areas are built from the statistical area 2 (SA2) geography, while rural and water areas are built from the statistical area 1 (SA1) geography.

Urban areas

Urban areas are statistically defined areas with no administrative or legal basis. They are characterised by high population density with many built environment features where people and buildings are located close together for residential, cultural, productive, trade and social purposes.

Urban areas are delineated using the following criteria. They:

form a contiguous cluster of one or more SA2s,

contain an estimated resident population of more than 1,000 people and usually have a population density of more than 400 residents or 200 address points per square kilometre,

have a high coverage of built physical structures and artificial landscapes such as:

• residential dwellings and apartments,

• commercial structures, such as factories, office complexes, and shopping centres,

• transport and communication facilities, such as airports, ports and port facilities, railway stations, bus stations and similar transport hubs, and communications infrastructure,

• medical, education, and community facilities,

• tourist attractions and accommodation facilities,

• waste disposal and sewerage facilities,

• cemeteries,

• sports and recreation facilities, such as stadiums, golf courses, racecourses, showgrounds, and fitness centres,

• green spaces, such as community parks, gardens, and reserves,

have strong economic ties where people gather together to work, and for social, cultural, and recreational interaction,

have planned development within the next 5–8 years.

Urban boundaries are independent of local government and other administrative boundaries. However, the Richmond urban area, which is mainly in the Tasman District, is the only urban area that crosses territorial authority boundaries

Rural areas

Rural areas are classified as rural settlements or other rural.

Rural settlements

Rural settlements are statistically defined areas with no administrative or legal basis. A rural settlement is a cluster of residential dwellings about a place that usually contains at least one community or public building.

Rural settlements are delineated using the following criteria. They:

form a contiguous cluster of one or more SA1s,

contain an estimated resident population of 200–1,000, or at least 40 residential dwellings,

represent a reasonably compact area or have a visible centre of population with a population density of at least 200 residents per square kilometre or 100 address points per square kilometre,

contain at least one community or public building, such as a church, school, or shop.

To reach the target SA2 population size of more than 1,000 residents, rural settlements are usually included with other rural SA1s to form an SA2. In some instances, the settlement and the SA2 have the same name, for example, Kirwee rural settlement is part of the Kirwee SA2.

Some rural settlements whose populations are just under 1,000 are a single SA2. Creating separate SA2s for these rural settlements allows for easy reclassification to urban areas if their populations grow beyond 1,000.

Other rural

Other rural areas are the mainland areas and islands located outside urban areas or rural settlements. Other rural areas include land used for agriculture and forestry, conservation areas, and regional and national parks. Other rural areas are defined by territorial authority.

Water

Bodies of water are classified separately, using the land/water demarcation classification described in the Statistical standard for meshblock. These water areas are not named and are defined by territorial authority or regional council.

The water classes include:

inland water – non-contiguous, defined by territorial authority,

inlets (which also includes tidal areas and harbours) – non-contiguous, defined by territorial authority,

oceanic – non-contiguous, defined by regional council.

To minimise suppression of population data, separate meshblocks have been created for marinas. These meshblocks are attached to adjacent land in the UR geography.

Non-digitised

The following 4 non-digitised UR areas have been aggregated from the 16 non-digitised meshblocks/SA2s.

6901; Oceanic outside region, 6902; Oceanic oil rigs, 6903; Islands outside region, 6904; Ross Dependency outside region.

UR numbering and naming

Each urban area and rural settlement is a single geographic entity with a name and a numeric code.

Other rural areas, inland water areas, and inlets are defined by territorial authority; oceanic areas are defined by regional council; and each have a name and a numeric code.

Urban rural codes have four digits. North Island locations start with a 1, South Island codes start with a 2, oceanic codes start with a 6 and non-digitised codes start with 69.

Urban rural indicator (IUR)

The accompanying urban rural indicator (IUR) classifies the urban, rural, and water areas by type. Urban areas are further classified by the size of their estimated resident population:

• major urban area – 100,000 or more residents,

• large urban area – 30,000–99,999 residents,

• medium urban area – 10,000–29,999 residents,

• small urban area – 1,000–9,999 residents.

This was based on 2018 Census data and 2021 population estimates. Their IUR status (urban area size/rural settlement) may change if the 2025 Census population count moves them up or down a category.

The indicators, by name, with their codes in brackets, are:

urban area – major urban (11), large urban (12), medium urban (13), small urban (14),

rural area – rural settlement (21), rural other (22),

water – inland water (31), inlet (32), oceanic (33).

Clipped Version

This clipped version has been created for cartographic purposes and so does not fully represent the official full extent boundaries.

​

High definition version

This high definition (HD) version is the most detailed geometry, suitable for use in GIS for geometric analysis operations and for the computation of areas, centroids and other metrics. The HD version is aligned to the LINZ cadastre.

​

Macrons

Names are provided with and without tohutō/macrons. The column name for those without macrons is suffixed ‘ascii’.

​

Digital data

Digital boundary data became freely available on 1 July 2007.

​

Further information

To download geographic classifications in table formats such as CSV please use Ariā

For more information please refer to the Statistical standard for geographic areas 2023.

Contact: geography@stats.govt.nz

The Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project, Version 1 (GRUMPv1): Urban Extents Grid distinguishes urban and rural areas based on a combination of population counts (persons), settlement points, and the presence of Nighttime Lights. Areas are defined as urban where contiguous lighted cells from the Nighttime Lights or approximated urban extents based on buffered settlement points for which the total population is greater than 5,000 persons. This data set is produced by the Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) in collaboration with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), The World Bank, and Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT).

The Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project, Version 1 (GRUMPv1): Land and Geographic Unit Area Grids measure land areas in square kilometers and the mean Unit size (population-weighted) in square kilometers. The land area grid permits the summation of areas (net of permanent ice and water) at the same resolution as the population density, count, and urban-rural grids. The mean Unit size grids provide a quantitative surface that indicates the size of the input Unit(s) from which population count and density grids are derived. Additional global grids are created from the 30 arc-second grid at 1/4, 1/2, and 1 degree resolutions. This data set is produced by the Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) in collaboration with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), The World Bank, and Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT).

This dataset is the definitive set of urban rural boundaries at 1 January 2019 as defined by Stats NZ. Urban rural is a new output geography that classifies New Zealand into areas that share common urban or rural characteristics. Urban areas are built from the Statistical Area 2 geography, while rural and water areas are built from the Statistical Area 1 geography. Urban areas are statistically defined areas with no administrative or legal basis. The urban rural indicator is an attribute of this classification and provides additional information about a location's urban or rural nature.

Digital boundary data became freely available on 1 July 2007. This generalised version has been simplified for rapid drawing and is designed for thematic or web mapping purposes.

For further information see ANZLIC Metadata 2019 Urban Rural or ANZLIC Metadata 2019 Urban Rural Indicator attachments below

This dataset contains the annually released urban rural boundaries for 2021, as defined by Stats NZ, clipped to the coastline. This clipped version has been created for map creation/cartographic purposes and so does not fully represent the official full extent boundaries. This version contains 668 urban rural categories.

The urban rural geography was introduced as part of the Statistical Standard for Geographic Areas 2018 (SSGA18) which replaced the New Zealand Standard Areas Classification (NZSAC92). The urban rural geography replaces the (NZSAC92) urban area geography. Urban rural is an output geography that classifies New Zealand into areas that share common urban or rural characteristics and is used to disseminate a broad range of Stats NZ’s social, demographic and economic statistics.

The urban rural indicator complements the urban rural geography and is an attribute in this dataset. Further information on the urban rural indicator is available on the Stats NZ classification and coding tool ARIA.

Names are provided with and without tohutō/macrons. The name field without macrons is suffixed ‘ascii’.

This generalised version has been simplified for rapid drawing and is designed for thematic or web mapping purposes.

Digital boundary data became freely available on 1 July 2007.

Refer to the current geographies boundaries table for a list of all current geographies and recent updates. This dataset is the definitive version of the annually released urban rural (UR) boundaries as at 1 January 2025 as defined by Stats NZ, clipped to the coastline. This clipped version has been created for cartographic purposes and so does not fully represent the official full extent boundaries. This version contains 689 UR areas, including 195 urban areas and 402 rural settlements. Urban rural (UR) is an output geography that classifies New Zealand into areas that share common urban or rural characteristics and is used to disseminate a broad range of Stats NZ’s social, demographic and economic statistics. The UR separately identifies urban areas, rural settlements, other rural areas, and water areas. Urban areas and rural settlements are form-based geographies delineated by the inspection of aerial imagery, local government land designations on district plan maps, address registers, property title data, and any other available information. However, because the underlying meshblock pattern is used to define the geographies, boundaries may not align exactly with local government land designations or what can be seen in aerial images. Other rural areas, and bodies of water represent areas not included within an urban area. Urban areas are built from the statistical area 2 (SA2) geography, while rural and water areas are built from the statistical area 1 (SA1) geography. Urban areas Urban areas are statistically defined areas with no administrative or legal basis. They are characterised by high population density with many built environment features where people and buildings are located close together for residential, cultural, productive, trade and social purposes. Urban areas are delineated using the following criteria. They: form a contiguous cluster of one or more SA2s, contain an estimated resident population of more than 1,000 people and usually have a population density of more than 400 residents or 200 address points per square kilometre, have a high coverage of built physical structures and artificial landscapes such as: residential dwellings and apartments, commercial structures, such as factories, office complexes, and shopping centres, transport and communication facilities, such as airports, ports and port facilities, railway stations, bus stations and similar transport hubs, and communications infrastructure, medical, education, and community facilities, tourist attractions and accommodation facilities, waste disposal and sewerage facilities, cemeteries, sports and recreation facilities, such as stadiums, golf courses, racecourses, showgrounds, and fitness centres, green spaces, such as community parks, gardens, and reserves, have strong economic ties where people gather together to work, and for social, cultural, and recreational interaction, have planned development within the next 5–8 years. Urban boundaries are independent of local government and other administrative boundaries. However, the Richmond urban area, which is mainly in the Tasman District, is the only urban area that crosses territorial authority boundaries Rural areas Rural areas are classified as rural settlements or other rural. Rural settlements Rural settlements are statistically defined areas with no administrative or legal basis. A rural settlement is a cluster of residential dwellings about a place that usually contains at least one community or public building. Rural settlements are delineated using the following criteria. They: form a contiguous cluster of one or more SA1s, contain an estimated resident population of 200–1,000, or at least 40 residential dwellings, represent a reasonably compact area or have a visible centre of population with a population density of at least 200 residents per square kilometre or 100 address points per square kilometre, contain at least one community or public building, such as a church, school, or shop. To reach the target SA2 population size of more than 1,000 residents, rural settlements are usually included with other rural SA1s to form an SA2. In some instances, the settlement and the SA2 have the same name, for example, Kirwee rural settlement is part of the Kirwee SA2. Some rural settlements whose populations are just under 1,000 are a single SA2. Creating separate SA2s for these rural settlements allows for easy reclassification to urban areas if their populations grow beyond 1,000. Other rural Other rural areas are the mainland areas and islands located outside urban areas or rural settlements. Other rural areas include land used for agriculture and forestry, conservation areas, and regional and national parks. Other rural areas are defined by territorial authority. Water Bodies of water are classified separately, using the land/water demarcation classification described in the Statistical standard for meshblock. These water areas are not named and are defined by territorial authority or regional council. The water classes include: inland water – non-contiguous, defined by territorial authority, inlets (which also includes tidal areas and harbours) – non-contiguous, defined by territorial authority, oceanic – non-contiguous, defined by regional council. To minimise suppression of population data, separate meshblocks have been created for marinas. These meshblocks are attached to adjacent land in the UR geography. Non-digitised The following 4 non-digitised UR areas have been aggregated from the 16 non-digitised meshblocks/SA2s. 6901; Oceanic outside region, 6902; Oceanic oil rigs, 6903; Islands outside region, 6904; Ross Dependency outside region. UR numbering and naming Each urban area and rural settlement is a single geographic entity with a name and a numeric code. Other rural areas, inland water areas, and inlets are defined by territorial authority; oceanic areas are defined by regional council; and each have a name and a numeric code. Urban rural codes have four digits. North Island locations start with a 1, South Island codes start with a 2, oceanic codes start with a 6 and non-digitised codes start with 69. Urban rural indicator (IUR) The accompanying urban rural indicator (IUR) classifies the urban, rural, and water areas by type. Urban areas are further classified by the size of their estimated resident population: major urban area – 100,000 or more residents, large urban area – 30,000–99,999 residents, medium urban area – 10,000–29,999 residents, small urban area – 1,000–9,999 residents. This was based on 2018 Census data and 2021 population estimates. Their IUR status (urban area size/rural settlement) may change if the 2025 Census population count moves them up or down a category. The indicators, by name, with their codes in brackets, are: urban area – major urban (11), large urban (12), medium urban (13), small urban (14), rural area – rural settlement (21), rural other (22), water – inland water (31), inlet (32), oceanic (33). Clipped Version This clipped version has been created for cartographic purposes and so does not fully represent the official full extent boundaries. ​ High definition version This high definition (HD) version is the most detailed geometry, suitable for use in GIS for geometric analysis operations and for the computation of areas, centroids and other metrics. The HD version is aligned to the LINZ cadastre. ​ Macrons Names are provided with and without tohutō/macrons. The column name for those without macrons is suffixed ‘ascii’. ​ Digital data Digital boundary data became freely available on 1 July 2007. ​ Further information To download geographic classifications in table formats such as CSV please use Ariā For more information please refer to the Statistical standard for geographic areas 2023. Contact: geography@stats.govt.nz

The Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project, Version 1 (GRUMPv1): Urban Extent Polygons, Revision 02 is an update to Revision 01, which included new settlements and represented the first time that SEDAC released polygons (in Esri shapefile format) with the settlement name (or name of the largest city in the case of multi-city agglomerations). The shapefile consists of polygons defined by the extent of the nighttime lights and approximated urban extents (circles) based on buffered settlement points. Revision 01 also included new urban extents identified from multiple sources and corrected georeferencing for some settlements (see separate documentation for Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project, Version 1 (GRUMPv1): Settlement Points, Revision 01 for the data and methods). Revision 01 was produced by the Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) in collaboration with CUNY Institute for Demographic Research (CIDR). Revision 02 was produced by CIESIN.

Rural Urban ClassificationThe 2021 RUC is a statistical classification to provide a consistent and standardised method for classifying geographies as rural or urban. This is based on address density, physical settlement form, population size, and Relative Access to Major towns and cities (populations of over 75,000 people). The classification is produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) with advice from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Welsh Government and colleagues from the Government Geography Profession (GGP).This is the 2021 rural-urban classification (RUC) of the 2021 Local Authority Districts in England and Wales. This means that the 2021 RUC methodology has been applied to the 2021 LAD boundaries. LAD classifications are divided into four categories based on their populations:<!--1. Majority Rural: had at least 50% of their population residing in Rural OAs.<!--2. Intermediate Rural: 35-50% rural population<!--3. Intermediate Urban: 20-35% rural population<!--4. Urban: 20% or less of the population live in rural OAs.Each 2021 LAD category is split into one of two Relative Access categories, using the same data as the 2021 Output Area RUC. If more than 50% of a LAD population lives in ‘nearer to a major town or city’ OAs, it is deemed ‘nearer a major town or city’; otherwise, it is classified as ‘further from a major town or city.

Where data is unavailable for Super Output Area geographies, it may be appropriate for users to undertake analysis at the LAD level. At this level, the categorisation works slightly differently in that most areas will include a mix of both rural and urban areas - so the LAD RUC categorisation is a reflection of this. A statistical geography may contain substantial portions of open countryside but still be given an ‘Urban’ classification if the majority of the population within the area live in settlements that are urban in nature. Users should take this into consideration to ensure correct interpretations of any analysis of RUC LAD categories

The Rural Definition was introduced in 2004 as a joint project between the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC - formerly the Countryside Agency), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) and the Welsh Assembly. It was delivered by the Rural Evidence Research Centre at Birkbeck College (RERC).A) This new 'spectrum', or graded system, replaces the earlier Oxford/CA binary ward classification and adopts a settlement-based approach.B) It is available for England and Wales at:Census Output Area (COA or OA)Census Super Output Area (CSOA or SOA)Ward[OAs consist of ~125 households and have a population of ~300. SOAs are built of OAs, typically 5, and so contain ~625 households or a mean population of ~1500. OAs therefore vary greatly in size and shape between urban and rural regions, for example a single tower block may consist of more than one OA, whereas a large area of remote moorland may be covered by a single OA.] More information on OAs and SOAs.C) Output areas are classified by morphology and context:MorphologyUrban (over 10,000)Rural townVillageDispersed (hamlets and isolated dwellings)And contextSparseLess sparseThis gives 8 Urban/Rural Classification (1 urban and 6 rural):Urban (Sparse)Urban (Less Sparse)Town (Less Sparse)Town (Sparse)Village (Less Sparse)Village (Sparse)Dispersed (Less Sparse)Dispersed (Sparse)In April 2009 significant changes in the structure of local government came into force. These changes, especially the creation of 9 new unitary authorities, have necessitated an update to the Local Authority Classification. The Government Statistical Service Regional and Geography Group (GSSRG) commissioned a working group to look at this issue, and the outcome of this working group is a revised LA Classification. Detailed information about the changes can be found here, with guidance on how to use the Definition and Classification here.

The Scottish Government (SG) Urban Rural Classification provides a consistent way of defining urban and rural areas across Scotland. The classification aids policy development and the understanding of issues facing urban, rural and remote communities. It is based upon two main criteria: (i) population as defined by National Records of Scotland (NRS), and (ii) accessibility based on drive time analysis to differentiate between accessible and remote areas in Scotland. The classification can be analysed in a two, three, six or eight fold form. The two-fold classification simply distinguishes between urban and rural areas through two categories, urban and rural, while the three-fold classification splits the rural category between accessible and remote. Most commonly used is the 6-fold classification which distinguishes between urban, rural, and remote areas through six categories. The 8-fold classification further distinguishes between remote and very remote regions. The Classification is normally updated on a biennial basis, with the current dataset reflective of the year 2020. Data for previous versions are available for download in ESRI Shapefile format.

Urban rural 2023 update

UR 2023 is the first major update of the geography since it was first created in 2018. The update is to ensure UR geographies are relevant and meet criteria before each five-yearly population and dwelling census. UR 2023 contains 13 new rural settlements and 7 new small urban areas. Updates were made to reflect real world change including new subdivisions and motorways, and to improve delineation of urban areas and rural settlements. The Wānaka urban area, whose population has grown to be more than 10,000 based on population estimates, has been reclassified to a medium urban area in the 2023 urban rural indicator.

​

In the 2023 classification there are:

• 7 major urban areas
• 13 large urban areas
• 23 medium urban areas
• 152 small urban areas
• 402 rural settlements.

​

This dataset is the definitive version of the annually released urban rural (UR) boundaries as at 1 January 2023 as defined by Stats NZ. This version contains 745 UR areas, including 195 urban areas and 402 rural settlements.

​

Urban rural (UR) is an output geography that classifies New Zealand into areas that share common urban or rural characteristics and is used to disseminate a broad range of Stats NZ’s social, demographic and economic statistics.

The UR separately identifies urban areas, rural settlements, other rural areas, and water areas. Urban areas and rural settlements are form-based geographies delineated by the inspection of aerial imagery, local government land designations on district plan maps, address registers, property title data, and any other available information. However, because the underlying meshblock pattern is used to define the geographies, boundaries may not align exactly with local government land designations or what can be seen in aerial images. Other rural areas, and bodies of water represent areas not included within an urban area.

Urban areas are built from the statistical area 2 (SA2) geography, while rural and water areas are built from the statistical area 1 (SA1) geography.

​

Non-digitised

The following 4 non-digitised UR areas have been aggregated from the 16 non-digitised meshblocks/SA2s.

6901; Oceanic outside region, 6902; Oceanic oil rigs, 6903; Islands outside region, 6904; Ross Dependency outside region.

​

UR numbering and naming

Each urban area and rural settlement is a single geographic entity with a name and a numeric code.

Other rural areas, inland water areas, and inlets are defined by territorial authority; oceanic areas are defined by regional council; and each have a name and a numeric code.

Urban rural codes have four digits. North Island locations start with a 1, South Island codes start with a 2, oceanic codes start with a 6 and non-digitised codes start with 69.

​

Urban rural indicator (IUR)

The accompanying urban rural indicator (IUR) classifies the urban, rural, and water areas by type. Urban areas are further classified by the size of their estimated resident population:

• major urban area – 100,000 or more residents,
• large urban area – 30,000–99,999 residents,
• medium urban area – 10,000–29,999 residents,
• small urban area – 1,000–9,999 residents.

​

This was based on 2018 Census data and 2021 population estimates. Their IUR status (urban area size/rural settlement) may change if the 2023 Census population count moves them up or down a category.

​

The indicators, by name, with their codes in brackets, are:

urban area – major urban (11), large urban (12), medium urban (13), small urban (14),

rural area – rural settlement (21), rural other (22),

water – inland water (31), inlet (32), oceanic (33).

​

The urban rural indicator complements the urban rural geography and is an attribute in this dataset. Further information on the urban rural indicator is available on the Stats NZ classification and coding tool ARIA.

​

For more information please refer to the Statistical standard for geographic areas 2023.

​

Generalised version

This generalised version has been simplified for rapid drawing and is designed for thematic or web mapping purposes.

​

Macrons

Names are provided with and without tohutō/macrons. The column name for those without macrons is suffixed ‘ascii’.

​

Digital data

Digital boundary data became freely available on 1 July 2007.

To download geographic classifications in table formats such as CSV please use Ariā

Thailand TH: Rural Population data was reported at 32,674,765.000 Person in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 33,371,259.000 Person for 2016. Thailand TH: Rural Population data is updated yearly, averaging 36,261,709.500 Person from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 43,194,869.000 Person in 2000 and a record low of 22,007,603.000 Person in 1960. Thailand TH: Rural Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Thailand – Table TH.World Bank: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Rural population refers to people living in rural areas as defined by national statistical offices. It is calculated as the difference between total population and urban population. Aggregation of urban and rural population may not add up to total population because of different country coverages.; ; World Bank staff estimates based on the United Nations Population Division's World Urbanization Prospects: 2014 Revision.; Sum;

In 2025, the degree of urbanization worldwide was at 58 percent. North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean were the regions with the highest level of urbanization, with over four-fifths of the population residing in urban areas. The degree of urbanization defines the share of the population living in areas defined as "cities". On the other hand, less than half of Africa's population lives in urban settlements. Globally, China accounts for over one-quarter of the built-up areas of more than 500,000 inhabitants. The definition of a city differs across various world regions - some countries count settlements with 100 houses or more as urban, while others only include the capital of a country or provincial capitals in their count. Largest agglomerations worldwideThough North America is the most urbanized continent, no U.S. city was among the top ten urban agglomerations worldwide in 2023. Tokyo-Yokohama in Japan was the largest urban area in the world that year, with 37.7 million inhabitants. New York ranked 13th, with 21.4 million inhabitants. Eight of the 10 most populous cities are located in Asia. ConnectivityIt may be hard to imagine how the reality will look in 2050, with 70 percent of the global population living in cities, but some statistics illustrate the ways urban living differs from suburban and rural living. American urbanites may lead more “connected” (i.e., internet-connected) lives than their rural and/or suburban counterparts. As of 2021, around 89 percent of people living in urban areas owned a smartphone. Internet usage was also higher in cities than in rural areas. On the other hand, rural areas always have, and always will, attract those who want to escape the rush of the city.

The Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect represents the relatively higher temperatures found in urban areas compared to surrounding rural areas owing to higher proportions of impervious surfaces and the release of waste heat from vehicles and heating and cooling systems. Paved surfaces and built structures tend to absorb shortwave radiation from the sun and release long-wave radiation after a lag of a few hours. The Global Urban Heat Island (UHI) Data Set, 2013, estimates the land surface temperature within urban areas in degrees Celsius (average summer daytime maximum and average summer nighttime minimum) as well as the difference between those temperatures and the temperatures in surrounding rural areas, defined as a 10km buffer around the urban extent. Urban extents are from SEDAC�s Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project, Version 1 (GRUMPv1), and land surface temperatures are from SEDAC�s Global Summer Land Surface Temperature (LST) Grids, 2013, which are derived from the Aqua Level-3 Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Version 5 global daytime and nighttime Land Surface Temperature (LST) 8-day composite data (MYD11A2). For most regions, the UHI data set provides the average daytime maximum (1:30 p.m. overpass) and average nighttime minimum (1:30 a.m. overpass) temperatures in urban and rural areas, and the urban-rural temperature differences, derived from LST data representing a 40-day time-span during July-August (Julian days 185-224) in the northern hemisphere and January-February (Julian days 001-040) in the southern hemisphere. LST grid cells with missing values resulting from high cloud cover in tropical regions were filled with daytime maximum and nighttime minimum LST values from April-May 2013 in the northern hemisphere and December 2013-January 2014 in the southern hemisphere, where available. Some data gaps remain in areas where data were insufficient (e.g., Central Africa).

5G availability in the rural United States increased to 24.8 percent in the second quarter of 2023, up from 20.7 percent during the same period in 2022. Meanwhile, urban availability increased to 35 percent. While these figures highlight a persistent regional divide in U.S. 5G availability, 5G technology has been touted as a means of closing the digital divide by bringing fast, low latency internet to areas without fixed broadband infrastructure.

Topicality: 01-01-2025Projection: New Zealand Transverse Mercator (NZTM)This layer contains the archive of urban-rural indicator areas as defined by Stats NZ. Urban rural is an output geography that classifies New Zealand into areas that share common urban or rural characteristics and is used to disseminate a broad range of Stats NZ’s social, demographic and economic statistics. The urban rural geography separately identifies urban areas, rural settlements, other rural areas, and water areas. The urban areas represent densely developed spaces, and encompass residential, commercial, and other nonresidential urban land uses. Rural settlements, other rural areas, and bodies of water represent areas not included within an urban area.This layer get updated yearly with the latest boundary data. You can use this layer when you need any year of boundary data in your map. By setting a filter on the dataset year you can filter on specific year of the dataset.For information about the fields in this dataset go to the Data tab.Urban Rural indicator classesurban area:urban major (11)urban large (12)urban medium (13)urban small (14)rural area:rural settlement (21)rural other (22)water:inland water (31)inlet (32)oceanic (33)The layer is further generalised by Eagle Technology for improved performance on the web, therefore it doesn't fully represent the official boundaries.If you only need the latest boundary data in your map you can use the current version of this dataset. All the current versions of Stats NZ Boundary layers can be found here.The official dataset can be found on https://datafinder.stats.govt.nz.This layer is offered by Eagle Technology (Official Esri Distributor). Eagle Technology offers services that can be used in the ArcGIS platform. The Content team at Eagle Technology updates the layers on a regular basis and regularly adds new content to the Living Atlas. By using this content and combining it with other data you can create new information products quickly and easily.If you have any questions or comments about the content, please let us now at livingatlas@eagle.co.nz

Urban studies often rely on urban boundaries that have been defined by administrative units or by land use or land cover classification of satellite images. The final results of those boundaries is the categorization of urban/non-urban units in the form of a binary layer used to extract additional information (e.g., zonal statistic) from other geographical layers (e.g., land surface temperature or population density). Given the heterogeneous and continuous nature of the built-up area, binary representations contain a mixture of urban/non-urban areas that influence the results of following analyses. Here we present a way to move beyond the limitations of the binary urban/non-urban representations with a hierarchical watershed-based thresholding and segmentation approach that partitions the built-up area into more homogeneous units. The proposed algorithm, applied to the Global Human Settlement Layer, enables researchers and planners to define urban computational units in three ways - bin-unit, watershed-unit, and agglomeration-unit - depending on need and scale of analyses. We provide suggested terminology and notation style for this cross-over application of a specialized watershed algorithm. Among other possible applications, the resulting segmented, binned and agglomeration units offer alternatives to existing patch analysis methods for drawing relationships between patterns of urban development and ecological or environmental attributes.

This dataset is the definitive set of annually released urban rural boundaries for 2020 as defined by Stats NZ. This version contains 721 urban rural categories. The urban rural geography was introduced as part of the Statistical Standard for Geographic Areas 2018 (SSGA18) which replaced the New Zealand Standard Areas Classification (NZSAC92). The urban rural geography replaces the (NZSAC92) urban area geography. Urban rural is an output geography that classifies New Zealand into areas that share common urban or rural characteristics and is used to disseminate a broad range of Stats NZ’s social, demographic and economic statistics. Update: Following the 2018 Census ten rural settlements were reclassified as small urban areas in the Urban Rural 2020 classification. These are: Haruru, Ngunguru, Waipu, Parakai, Patumahoe Village, Pauanui, Pirongia, Mapua, Clyde and Lake Hawea. The urban rural indicator complements the urban rural geography and is an attribute in this dataset. Further information on the urban rural indicator is available on the Stats NZ classification and coding tool ARIA. Names are provided with and without tohutō/macrons. The name field without macrons is suffixed ‘ascii’. This generalised version has been simplified for rapid drawing and is designed for thematic or web mapping purposes. Digital boundary data became freely available on 1 July 2007.