Rural Taxonomy of Population and Health-Resource Characteristics
The rural taxonomy of population and health-resource characteristics provides a systematic tool for classifying and identifying similar rural communities and places. Ten distinct types of rural places are classified based on characteristics related to both demand (population) and supply (health resources) sides of the health services market. This website contains the following information to assist policy makers, rural communities, healthcare organizations and providers, and researchers to utilize the taxonomy and to identify similar rural communities and places:
- Policy Brief that discusses the key findings in the development of the taxonomy;
- A Technical Report that describes the methodology and analytical results for developing the taxonomy in details;
- A U.S. map and tables of 4019 rural Primary Care Service Areas (PCSAs) classified by their types in the taxonomy;
- An Excel spreadsheet that contains the ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) that the 4019 classified and five additional, unclassified rural PCSAs serve respectively;
- State maps and tables of rural PCSAs classified by their types in the taxonomy;
- Interactive state maps with PCSA-specific information;