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Central Distributor SEDD: Description of Data Elements

 
PL_RUCA10 - Patient location: Rural-Urban Commuting Area (RUCA) Codes, ten levels
 
Documentation Sections:
General Notes
Uniform Values
State Specific Notes
General Notes
 

Rural Urban Commuting Areas (RUCA) are assigned to ZIP Codes using population and commuting information from the Census. They form a classification scheme that distinguishes urban ZIP Codes by population size and characterizes rural ZIP Codes by their population and the strength of their association with larger urban areas. Rural ZIP Codes are differentiated by three factors; the size of their largest urban community, the proportion of that population regularly commuting to larger urban areas, and the size of the urban destinations. RUCA are defined for 1993 ZIP Codes using population and commuting information from the 1990 census.

PL_RUCA10 is one method of combining the 30 categories defined by the full RUCA into broader categories. The 10 categories are created utilizing the integer portion of PL_RUCA. This approach produces categories that focus on the population size of the origins and destinations of the primary commuting flow. The secondary commuting flows that provide additional refinements concerning the connection between areas, and are represented in the decimal portions of the codes, are discounted.

 
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Uniform Values
 
VariableDescriptionValueValue Description
PL_RUCA10Patient location: Rural-Urban Commuting Area (RUCA) Codes, ten levels1Metro core
2Metro area, commuting to urban areas
3Metro area, low commuting
4Large town core (10,000-50,000)
5Large town, commuting to large towns
6Large towns, low commuting
7Small town core (2,500-10,000)
8Small town, commuting to small towns
9Small town, low commuting
10Rural
.Missing
 
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State Specific Notes

None

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Internet Citation: HCUP Central Distributor SEDD Description of Data Elements - All States. Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). September 2008. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/db/vars/sedddistnote.jsp?var=pl_ruca10.
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Last modified 9/11/08