Describes the use of census tracts in place of counties to identify metro and nonmetro components of a five-level "rural-urban continuum." Application of the system to Arizona, South Carolina, and Minnesota demonstrates the superiority of census tracts in providing a more precise territorial delineation of areas and classification of…

Uses central place theory and a trade center hierarchy to examine changes in size and function of communities in Saskatchewan, 1961-90. Finds shift of population to larger centers and pronounced decline in hierarchical level of smaller trade centers, leading to questions of smaller communities' feasibility, Suggests possibility of coordination…

Uses 1950-90 census data to examine population trends in six northern Plains and Rocky Mountain states. Finds that, except for the rural turnaround of the 1970s, metropolitan counties grew faster than nonmetropolitan; nonmetropolitan counties containing larger communities grew in all four decades; and counties with smaller communities lost…

Uses Census of Governments data from 1962-87 to examine number and distribution of U.S. nonmetropolitan government-poor counties (places that spend little on government services). Although the number of government-poor counties has declined steadily, spending levels in the 160 poorest counties actually decreased relative to the nonmetropolitan…

Nine county-level urban-influence categories were developed to enhance research on geographic differences in economic opportunities. Categories differ along many social and economic dimensions: population growth, educational attainment, employment growth, earnings, presence of institutions of higher learning, and hospital and physician supply.…