Urban Influence Codes

The 2013 Urban Influence Codes form a classification scheme that distinguishes metropolitan counties by population size of their metro area, and nonmetropolitan counties by size of the largest city or town and proximity to metro and micropolitan areas. The standard Office of Management and Budget (OMB) metro and nonmetro categories have been subdivided into two metro and 10 nonmetro categories, resulting in a 12-part county classification. This scheme was originally developed in 1993. 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.

An update of the Urban Influence Codes is planned for mid-2023.

Data and Resources

Field Value
accessLevel public
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describedBy http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/urban-influence-codes/documentation.aspx
identifier USDA-ERS-00092
issued 2019-10-24
license https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
modified 2019-10-24
old-spatial United States
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publisher Economic Research Service, Department of Agriculture
resource-type Dataset
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Groups
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  • National Provider
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Tags
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  • AmeriGEOSS
  • CKAN
  • GEO
  • GEOSS
  • National
  • North America
  • United States
  • metro
  • nonmetro
  • rural
  • rural-sociology
  • urban
isopen True
license_id cc-zero
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maintainer John Cromartie
maintainer_email john.cromartie@usda.gov
metadata_created 2025-09-24T18:20:35.721709
metadata_modified 2025-09-24T18:20:35.721718
notes The 2013 Urban Influence Codes form a classification scheme that distinguishes metropolitan counties by population size of their metro area, and nonmetropolitan counties by size of the largest city or town and proximity to metro and micropolitan areas. The standard Office of Management and Budget (OMB) metro and nonmetro categories have been subdivided into two metro and 10 nonmetro categories, resulting in a 12-part county classification. This scheme was originally developed in 1993. 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. An update of the Urban Influence Codes is planned for mid-2023.
num_resources 1
num_tags 13
title Urban Influence Codes