On September 11, 2025, the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP), located within the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), updated the Rural Health Grants Eligibility Analyzer to incorporate the latest Census Bureau data on rural areas.
In August, the United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Services (USDA-ERS) published updated Rural-Urban Commuting Area (RUCA) codes and Road Ruggedness Scale (RRS) codes to reflect the latest Census Bureau data. FORHP uses this data to define rural areas so that organizations can apply for rural health grants at HRSA.
Consistent with past census data updates, newly added rural areas will immediately go into effect and newly metro areas will be grandfathered for one year for the purposes of FORHP rural health grant applications. This data update will not disrupt or change any existing FORHP awards. FORHP’s updates incorporate the latest from USDA and Census Bureau and do not reflect any changes to our methodology for identifying rural health areas.
You can read more about FORHP’s rural definition for its rural health grants here. More information about this rural eligibility update will be available in forthcoming FORHP rural health grant notices of funding opportunities. For rural definition questions, please e-mail RuralPolicy@hrsa.gov.