The Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) recently announced updates to its definition of “rural area” to improve healthcare resource allocations in rural areas. A key addition is the use of the Rural Ruggedness Scale (RRS) to classify certain rugged census tracts in metropolitan counties as rural. This addition increases the number of FORHP-designated rural census tracts by 84, adding approximately 305,000 people to the 60.8 million already living in rural areas.
While none of the newly designated tracts are in Michigan, this update provides valuable context for rural members by highlighting changes in rural policy language. The updated definition also redefines “outlying metropolitan counties” as those with no population from an urban area of 50,000 or more, aligning with Census standards.
These updates took effect Nov. 21, 2024 and will apply to funding opportunities beginning in fiscal year 2025.
The new definitions cover five main categories:
- Non-metropolitan counties
- Outlying metro counties with no urbanized population of 50,000 or more
- Census tracts with specific Rural-Urban Commuting Area (RUCA) codes (4-10) in metro counties
- Large census tracts with low population density and RUCA codes 2-3
- Rugged census tracts in metro counties with RRS 5 and RUCA codes 2-3.
FORHP online tools, including the Rural Health Grants Eligibility Analyzer and the Am I Rural? Tool, are being updated with full data files to reflect the changes.
Members with questions may contact Lauren LaPine at the MHA.