overview
An area's economic and social characteristics have significant effects on its development and need for various types of public programs. To provide policy-relevant information about diverse county conditions to policymakers, public officials, and researchers, ERS has developed a new set of county-level typology codes that captures differences in economic and social characteristics. This 2004 County Typology is a major update and revision of ERS's 1989 county typology. See the typology code chapter in the measuring rurality briefing room for more information, links to maps, and methodolgy.

data files (in Excel format)

• Final 2004 County Typology Codes
• 1989 County Typology Codes
• 1979 and 1986 County Typology Codes, uses the 1983 nonmetro definition
• 1979 and 1986 County Typology Codes, uses the 1974 nonmetro definition

release date
August 2004

instructions/helpful hints
See methods, data sources, and documentation for background on the typology codes. Please note that 39 counties have changed farm dependency status from the preliminary group posted in May 2004. A discussion of these changes may be found here.

related resources

• 2004 county typology codes—More information about the 2004 county typology codes, including links to maps and definitions
• Methodology—Methods, data sources, documentation, and information on upddates to the final 2004 codes
• 1989 county typology codes—More information about the 1989 county typology codes, including links to maps and definitions
• The Revised County Typology: An Overview—This report describes, in detail, the expanded and revised version of the ERS 1979 classification of nonmetro counties with the 1989 county typology codes.

• What is rural?
• New definitions in 2003
• Measuring rurality briefing room
• Urban influence codes
• Rural-urban continuum codes

for more information, contact: Linda Ghelfi
web administration: webadmin@ers.usda.gov
page updated: August 26, 2004