Urban vs. Rural: Counties Ranked in Northern Virginia

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 areas of Northern Virginia 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.

Data released Thursday as part of the 2015 American Community Survey looked at five years of U.S. Census Bureau estimates on housing and poverty and how that relates to the rural and urban divide. As part of the survey, every community in the country is 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 — including Arlington County, Virginia — and 704 are completely rural, so most of us live in counties with some mix of the two. Many cities are completely urban.

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

• Spotsylvania County: 32.2 percent rural
• Stafford County 19.8 percent rural
• Loudoun County: 12.6 percent rural
• Prince William County: 4.2 percent rural
• Fairfax County: 1.4 percent rural
• City of Fredericksburg: 1.2 percent rural

Arlington County, along with the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas, and Manassas Park, have no rural areas.

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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