An ad hoc committee will organize a public workshop on data, estimation, and policy issues for rationalizing the multiple classifications of rural areas currently in use by the Economic Research Service (ERS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The workshop will provide background on the origins, rationales, uses, underlying data, and methods for the four highly related but distinct geographic classification systems currently maintained by ERS to designate areas by the degree to which they are rural. Workshop sessions will cover the criteria for a desirable classification going forward, including: consistency with OMB and Census Bureau definitions; utility in identifying socioeconomic/demographic variation as it is affected by size of place and degree of urban proximity; utility to stakeholders in delineating program eligibility; and such attributes as a reasonably small number of categories with analytic and “face” validity in terms of plausible breakpoints. Papers will be commissioned for discussion at the workshop on the properties and pros and cons of alternative classification schemes. A workshop session will also consider trade-offs given that no single classification system is likely to satisfy all requirements.

Draft commissioned papers will be provided to workshop participants, in advance, to inform the workshop discussion and will be posted on the CNSTAT website. Following the workshop, a designated rapporteur will prepare an individually authored summary of the presentations and discussion in accordance with institutional guidelines. A transcript of the workshop discussions will be provided to the sponsor.