Census Releases Updated List of Urban Areas

Last week, the Census Bureau released the official list of urban areas (UA) which includes definition changes to urbanized areas made Spring of 2022. The data is used to define rural areas for multiple programs, including Rural Health Clinic eligibility. The release of the UA files will allow organizations to start calculating updated rural definitions with 2020 Census data. All places with urban land use meeting the Census criteria are now delineated as UAs. All other places are rural when using the Census definition. See the December Federal Register Notice for more information on the UA changes for the 2020 Census.