Census Bureau

Selected Historical Decennial Census
Urban and Rural Definitions and Data


1990 Urban and Rural Definitions

Urban and Rural Populations:

  1. United States, Regions, Divisions, and States: 1900 to 1990

  2. United States: 1790 to 1990 [PDF]
    NOTE: An error in the 1960 rural population count was discovered after the publication of CPH-2-1 from the 1990 Census. The correct 1960 rural population using the 'Current urban definition' is 54,054,425.

1990 Decennial Census of Population and Housing Characteristics

Urban and Rural Classification Census 2000
- includes differences between the 1990 and 2000 criteria for urbanized areas

[PDF] or PDF denotes a file in Adobe’s Portable Document Format. To view the file, you will need the Adobe® Acrobat® Reader This link to a non-federal Web site does not imply endorsement of any particular product, company, or content. available free from Adobe.