Urban vs. Rural: Counties Ranked in Atlanta Metro

Rural areas of the country are vast — covering 97 percent of the nation's footprint — but these areas account for less than 20 percent of the population, according to new census data released Thursday. Rural parts of the Atlanta metro area can be increasingly hard to find as large wooded areas are replaced with new neighborhoods, expansive supermarkets and the wider roads that are needed to meet that development.

The data released Thursday is part of the 2015 American Community Survey, a collection of five years of U.S. Census Bureau estimates. Every community in the country was surveyed on more than 40 topics, including housing, employment, education and more.

It found notable differences between people living in rural and urban areas. Residents of rural areas are more likely to own their own homes and less likely to live in poverty. They're also more likely to have served in the military.

The census definition for "rural" is any area not considered urban. And the "urban" definition is set by standard measures, including population size and density and the amount of impervious surfaces (parking lots for example). There are exceptions for small airports (still rural) or large urban developments that may be separated from metro areas by large parks or nature preserves (still urban).

Of more than 3,100 counties, only 29 are completely urban and 704 are completely rural, including Heard County. So, most of us live in counties with some mix of urban and rural. Many cities are completely urban.

Here are the Atlanta metro area's Rurality Levels, based on the percentage of the population living in areas designated "rural" by the census:

Heard County: 100 percent rural

Pike County: 99 percent rural

Meriwether County: 83.3 percent rural

Jasper County: 81.8 percent rural

Dawson County: 80.3 percent rural

Butts County: 77.9 percent rural

Haralson County: 77.4 percent rural

Morgan County: 75.4 percent rural

Pickens County: 73.1 percent rural

Lamar County: 60.9 percent rural

Walton County: 42.7 percent rural

Carroll County: 41.8 percent rural

Spalding County: 41.6 percent rural

Bartow County: 35.2 percent rural

Coweta County: 32.9 percent rural

Newton County: 31.2 percent rural

Barrow County: 30.1 percent rural

Hall County: 20.6 percent rural

Paulding County: 20.1 percent rural

Fayette County: 18.2 percent rural

Cherokee County: 17.1 percent rural

Douglas County: 15.8 percent rural

Rockdale County: 14.9 percent rural

Henry County: 13.9 percent rural

Forsyth County: 9.9 percent rural

Fulton County: 1.1 percent rural

Clayton County: 0.9 percent rural

Gwinnett County: 0.5 percent rural

DeKalb County: 0.3 percent rural

Cobb County: 0.2 percent rural

Differences in Rural America

Among the national data, census estimates found:

• Most adults in both rural and urban areas owned their own homes, but the percentage was higher in rural areas (81.1 percent compared to 59.8 percent).
• Adults in rural areas were also more likely to live in single-family homes (78.3 percent compared to 64.6 percent) and live in their state of birth (65.4 percent compared with 48.3 percent).
• Veterans comprised 10.4 percent of the population of adults in rural areas compared to 7.8 percent of adults in urban areas.

More of the residents of rural areas were older, with a median age of 51, compared to adults in urban areas with a median age of 45.

Rural households had slightly lower household incomes, but there were fewer in poverty. Home values were lower, but mortgage costs were less and they were more likely to own their home.

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