ARC uses a condensed version of the 2024 Urban Influence Codes from USDA’s Economic Research Service to designate counties into one of five rural-urban types to aggregate data for research and analysis that examines urban and rural settlement patterns across the Appalachian Region. While Appalachia is a distinct part of the United States, the Appalachian Region is far from homogeneous, including both rural counties and major metropolitan areas such as Pittsburgh, Birmingham, and parts of suburban Atlanta. Use the map to find the rural-urban type for each Appalachian county or visit this web mapping application for more options. See the report below for updates made to the rural-urban county type designations in 2026 using the 2024 data.
For a list of county data by state, see the downloadable Excel file below.
