Abstract
First appearing in “Why Rural Matters 2025: People, Place, and Possibility,” this essay explains how changes to U.S. Census Bureau definitions of “urban” after the 2020 census have significantly reshaped which school districts and schools are classified as rural. These updates—such as raising population thresholds and redefining density—have led to many districts shifting classifications, with far more becoming newly rural than leaving that category. As a result, rural student counts have increased substantially, although this increase mostly reflects reclassification rather than demographic change. These shifts have important implications for funding, research, and policy decisions related to rural education.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Showalter, D.
(2026).
Updates to the Definition of Rural.
The Rural Educator, 47(3), 99-102.
https://doi.org/10.55533/2643-9662.1718
