The four papers contained in this document were prepared in conjuction with the Metropolitan Concepts and Statistics Project of the Bureau of the Census. The papers present new approaches to identifying and presenting elements of U.S. settlement system, with particular emphasis upon metropolitan and nonmetroplitan areas. The Working Paper presents the authors' work to the public for the first time and will serve as a centerpiece of discussion at the Conference on New Approaches to Defining Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Area, hosted by the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics (November 1995 in Washington,D.C.).

A report presenting updated statistics on selected characteristics of persons and families in metropolitan areas; also includes data for nonmetropolitan areas in 1969 and 1960. 108 pages.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service (USDA/ERS) maintains four highly related but distinct geographic classification systems to designate areas by the degree to which they are rural. The original urban-rural code scheme was developed by the ERS in the 1970s. Rural America today is very different from the rural America of 1970 described in the first rural classification report. At that time migration to cities and poverty among the people left behind was a central concern. The more rural a residence, the more likely a person was to live in poverty, and this relationship held true regardless of age or race. Since the 1970s the interstate highway system was completed and broadband was developed. Services have become more consolidated into larger centers. Some of the traditional rural industries, farming and mining, have prospered, and there has been rural amenity-based in-migration. Many major structural and economic changes have occurred during this period. These factors have resulted in a quite different rural economy and society since 1970. In April 2015, the Committee on National Statistics convened a workshop to explore the data, estimation, and policy issues for rationalizing the multiple classifications of rural areas currently in use by the Economic Research Service (ERS). Participants aimed to help ERS make decisions regarding the generation of a county rural-urban scale for public use, taking into consideration the changed social and economic environment. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

A report presenting data on selected social and economic characteristics of the population by type of residence from the March 1970 Current Population Survey and from a one-in-thousand sample of the 1960 census. Data on population, family charac.