overview
The Rural Indicators Map Machine is an Internet-based mapping utility that provides a visualization of indicators for rural areas available from ERS and other government agencies. These indicators include the Natural Amenities Scale, the Rural Typology Code, the Urban Influence Code, the Rural-urban Continuum Code, the Rural-urban Commuting Area Code, population change, the unemployment rate, and median household income. You can examine the data and get information about the features on the map, move to different geographic levels, and change data layers. For example, a user can select a state, zoom into a specific county and display the data attributes of that county. New indicators and features will be added in the future.

Tabular data for each of the indicators can also be accessed by data queries. The results of the data queries can be viewed on the interactive map and downloaded into a text file.

data files
Access the Rural Indicators Map Machine

The rural indicators data are available in several forms from ERS or other government agencies. The links below provide additional information about the indicators and ability to dowload data files.

ERS data products:

• Natural Amenities
• County Typology Codes
• Urban Influence
• Rural-Urban Continuum Codes
• Rural-Urban Commuting Area Codes

• Population
• Unemployment
• Median household income

media
Interactive data product.

instructions/helpful hints
Find out more on using the Rural Map machine.

related resources
Rural America at a Glance—ERS' collection of static maps and charts showing economic and social indicators of rural America.

The United States National Atlas from the U.S.Geological Survey—Interactive and static maps on a variety of topics.

The National Geographic Map Machine—Interactive maps of the world.

HUD Environmental Maps—Interactive maps showing housing and environmental characteristics for the United States.

USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service—Maps and figures on agriculture and the environment.

for more information, contact: Tim Parker
web administration: webadmin@ers.usda.gov
page updated: January 20, 2004