East-West Gateway’s February 2023 Map of the Month depicts the change in urbanized area for the East-West Gateway region from 2010 to 2020. The Census Bureau adopted new rules for calculating and categorizing urbanized areas for the 2020 census. Historically, populated areas were categorized as either Urbanized Area or Urban Cluster depending on population density among other rules. The Census Bureau will now categorize all areas that meet the new criteria as Urban Area. For an in-depth explanation of all the changes follow this link.
After each decennial census, the U. S. Census Bureau redefines both urban and rural areas, providing an important baseline for analyzing the distribution and characteristics of urban and rural populations and economic activity. East-West Gateway utilizes these boundaries in its own research, analysis and transportation planning.
On the map, areas that have been reclassified from rural to urban are shown in gold. Areas that have been reclassified from urban to rural are shown in green. This reclassification may result from changes in delineation criteria, on the part of the Census Bureau, rather than from actual declines in population density. The areas in tan saw no change in classification from 2010 to 2020. Across the region, a net estimated 14 square miles of urban area was reclassified as rural under these new rules.