Title: Classification and Scoring of U.S. County and ZIP Code Rurality
Version: 0.1.0
Description: Provides USDA Rural-Urban Continuum Codes (RUCC 2023), Rural-Urban Commuting Area codes (RUCA 2020), and a composite rurality score for all U.S. counties. Functions enable lookup by FIPS code, ZIP code, or county name, and easy merging with existing datasets. Data sources include the USDA Economic Research Service, U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, and Census TIGER/Line shapefiles.
License: MIT + file LICENSE
Encoding: UTF-8
RoxygenNote: 7.3.3
Depends: R (≥ 4.1.0)
Imports: dplyr, rlang, stringr
Suggests: ggplot2, knitr, rmarkdown, sf, tigris, testthat (≥ 3.0.0)
VignetteBuilder: knitr
Config/testthat/edition: 3
LazyData: true
URL: https://github.com/cwimpy/rurality, https://rurality.app
BugReports: https://github.com/cwimpy/rurality/issues
NeedsCompilation: no
Packaged: 2026-04-04 13:49:52 UTC; cwimpy
Author: Cameron Wimpy ORCID iD [aut, cre]
Maintainer: Cameron Wimpy <cwimpy@astate.edu>
Repository: CRAN
Date/Publication: 2026-04-10 09:30:02 UTC

Merge Rurality Data onto a Data Frame

Description

Joins rurality data onto an existing data frame by FIPS code.

Usage

add_rurality(
  data,
  fips_col = "fips",
  vars = c("rurality_score", "rurality_classification", "rucc_2023")
)

Arguments

data

A data frame with a FIPS code column.

fips_col

The name of the FIPS code column (default: "fips").

vars

Which rurality variables to add. Default adds score and classification. Use "all" for all variables.

Value

The input data frame with rurality columns appended.

Examples

my_data <- data.frame(fips = c("05031", "06037", "48453"), value = 1:3)
add_rurality(my_data)
add_rurality(my_data, vars = "all")

Classify a Rurality Score

Description

Converts numeric rurality scores to classification labels.

Usage

classify_rurality(score)

Arguments

score

A numeric vector of rurality scores (0-100).

Value

A character vector of classifications.

Examples

classify_rurality(c(15, 35, 55, 75, 90))

County-Level Rurality Data for the United States

Description

A dataset containing rurality scores, USDA classifications, and demographic data for all U.S. counties. Includes RUCC 2023 codes, population density, distance to metro areas, and a composite rurality score.

Usage

county_rurality

Format

A tibble with approximately 3,233 rows and 23 columns:

fips

5-digit county FIPS code (character)

state_fips

2-digit state FIPS code (character)

county_fips

3-digit county FIPS code (character)

state_abbr

Two-letter state abbreviation

county_name

County name

pop_2020

2020 Census population

acs_pop

ACS 2022 5-year population estimate

land_area_sqmi

Land area in square miles

pop_density

Population per square mile

rucc_2023

USDA Rural-Urban Continuum Code (1-9)

rucc_description

RUCC code description

omb_designation

OMB designation: Metropolitan, Micropolitan, or Nonmetro

lat

County centroid latitude

lng

County centroid longitude

dist_large_metro

Distance to nearest large metro (>1M pop) in miles

dist_medium_metro

Distance to nearest medium metro (250K-1M) in miles

dist_small_metro

Distance to nearest small metro (50K-250K) in miles

rucc_score

RUCC-derived score component (0-100)

density_score

Population density score component (0-100)

distance_score

Distance to metro score component (0-100)

rurality_score

Composite rurality score (0-100)

rurality_classification

Classification: Urban, Suburban, Mixed, Rural, Very Rural

median_income

ACS 2022 median household income

median_age

ACS 2022 median age

Details

The composite rurality score is calculated as a weighted average:

Classifications:

Source

Examples

# View the data
county_rurality

# Filter to rural counties
library(dplyr)
county_rurality |> filter(rurality_classification == "Very Rural")

# Arkansas counties
county_rurality |> filter(state_abbr == "AR")

Look Up RUCA Code by ZIP Code

Description

Returns the USDA Rural-Urban Commuting Area code (2020) for one or more ZIP codes or ZCTAs.

Usage

get_ruca(zip)

Arguments

zip

A character vector of 5-digit ZIP codes.

Details

RUCA codes range from 1 (metropolitan core) to 10 (rural). The primary code reflects the majority commuting pattern; the secondary code captures additional commuting flows.

Value

A tibble with columns: zip, primary_ruca, secondary_ruca, state. Returns NA values for ZIPs not in the RUCA dataset.

Examples

get_ruca("72401")
get_ruca(c("72401", "90210", "59801"))

Get RUCC Code for a County

Description

Returns the USDA Rural-Urban Continuum Code (2023) for one or more counties.

Usage

get_rucc(fips)

Arguments

fips

A character vector of 5-digit county FIPS codes.

Value

An integer vector of RUCC codes (1-9), or NA for unmatched FIPS.

Examples

get_rucc("05031")
get_rucc(c("05031", "06037"))

Look Up Rurality Data by FIPS Code

Description

Returns the full rurality record for one or more county FIPS codes.

Usage

get_rurality(fips)

Arguments

fips

A character vector of 5-digit county FIPS codes.

Value

A tibble with rurality data for the matched counties.

Examples

get_rurality("05031")
get_rurality(c("05031", "06037", "48453"))

RUCA Code Data for U.S. ZIP Codes

Description

USDA Rural-Urban Commuting Area codes (2020) for approximately 41,000 ZCTAs.

Usage

ruca_codes

Format

A tibble with columns:

zip

5-digit ZIP/ZCTA code (character)

state

Two-letter state abbreviation

primary_ruca

Primary RUCA code (1-10)

secondary_ruca

Secondary RUCA code (1-10)

Source

USDA Economic Research Service, Rural-Urban Commuting Area Codes 2020

Get Rurality Score for a County

Description

Returns the composite rurality score (0-100) for one or more counties.

Usage

rurality_score(fips)

Arguments

fips

A character vector of 5-digit county FIPS codes.

Value

A numeric vector of rurality scores, or NA for unmatched FIPS.

Examples

rurality_score("05031")
rurality_score(c("05031", "06037", "48453"))