3 ms·

Rural is defined in USA here: https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/rural-classifications/what-is-rural/ https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rura

• ghaff 5y ago
  So that basically says that essentially no one in the state of MA is rural and that almost no one in the state of CA is rural. Which probably doesn't correspond to how average people think about rural vs. urban. So the fact that I can look off my back deck and see nothing but trees is a reasonable urban environment.
  • kbenson 5y ago
    > and that almost no one in the state of CA is rural Kinda crazy to see the entire I-5 length between San Francisco and Los Angeles classified as "metro". Perhaps the metric they're using doesn't work so well when counties (which is what they classify) are so large, and they primarily care that some city of over 50k people exists in it "somewhere". Some of those counties appear to be as large as or larger than some of the smaller states in the Northeast.
    • ghaff 5y ago
      I'm sure there are reasons for the current classification. But there are certainly differences between I live on a hundred acres but I have decent shopping and culture relatively accessible and the nearest Walmart is 100 miles away. As you suggest, a lot of what is classified as urban is not urban especially by the standards of someone who barely considers the South Bay as urban.
    • s0rce 5y ago
      Huge parts of the California desert are also classified as urban as the counties are so large, some of those places are extremely remote. Even the western central valley, other than i5 cutting through it is remote and sparsely inhabited.
• deleted 5y ago
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