Rural Urban Suburban Data

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Features & Data Elements

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Download is available immediately upon purchase and for the duration of the annual subscription.
Monthly Updates
We update our data as changes become available. We recommend you download the latest on a monthly or quarterly basis.
Free FTP (optional)
For customers requiring access to data programmatically, we provide an FTP location populated with their active subscriptions. This is an optional feature available upon request.
Data Format - CSV
Comma-Separated Values (CSV) Text File
5 Digit ZIP Code
Official U.S. Postal Service five digit ZIP Code
ZIP Type (Business, Military, etc.)
U.S. Postal Service type codes:
B = Single High-volume Address
M = APO/FPO Military
E = P.O. Box Only
No value indicates standard general delivery
State
Official U.S. Postal Service state abbreviation
County
The name of the county in which the ZIP Code is found.
City
Official city name used by the U.S. Postal Service
Rural Codes
Locale Indicator:
R=Rural
U=Urban
S=Suburban
blank=unclassified

This product classifies ZIP Codes as being predominately Rural, Urban, or Suburban geographical areas. This classification is based on three key factors: population density (people per square mile), distance from nearest city, and size of the nearest city (urban and suburban areas extend farther for larger cities). Please note that some ZIP Codes are borderline and therefore there is a degree of subjectivity inherent with this data.

We use Census counts and estimations to calculate the population per ZIP Code based on a ZCTA (Zip Code Tabulation Area). It is an approximation derived from U.S. Census Bureau data and in-house research.

This product is updated regularly as ZIP Codes are added and we receive population updates; thus, there are no pre-scheduled release dates. The price includes an initial download and any updates made available during the year. rural urban

For more details, choose tabs at upper-left.

free ftp upon request

Free FTP - Beyond our immediate download functionality, a customer may wish to access their data over FTP. This is now freely available to any customer upon request. We will provide an FTP location populated with up-to-date copies of your actively subscribed data.

Rurual Urban Suburban Codes

Around the time of this product’s inception, we found that the Department of Defense had established the following designations for a ZIP Code:

Urban: 3,000+ persons per square mile
Suburban: 1,000 ‐ 3,000 persons per square mile
Rural: less than 1,000 persons per square mile

This was a good starting point, but it soon became apparent that this was inadequate. A lightly populated ZIP Code joining a major metropolitan area might have been classified as “Rural” based on population counts alone. To improve it for marketing and other uses, we began factoring in additional information such as population of adjoining city and distance from nearest major city.

Records without a Rural, Urban, or Suburban classification may include: ZIP Codes without population counts or estimates, regular and military PO Boxes, and areas such as Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Island, and the South Pacific territories.

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Cannot be resold, transferred, or used to compete with GreatData.com (as outlined in license agreement). One copy per application or business entity.

Click for data sample and field names stored in Comma Separated Values file format (*.csv).