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Central Distributor SEDD: Description of Data Elements

 
PL_RUCC2003 - Patient location: Rural-Urban Continuum (RUCC) Codes, 2003
 
Documentation Sections:
General Notes
Uniform Values
State Specific Notes
General Notes
 

The 2003 version of the Rural-Urban Continuum Codes (RUCC) subdivide counties into 9 categories distinguished by population size in census-defined urbanized areas and by adjacency to metropolitan areas. To be adjacent, counties must be contiguous and have at least 2% of the resident labor force commuting to a central metropolitan county.

A county-based system such as RUCC, which attempts to describe the diversity in settlement patterns in a relatively large area by a single number, may not provide an accurate depiction. However, because county boundaries don't change much, every county will be represented by a measure, even after an extended period of time.

RUCC were developed at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's, Economic Research Service, as a refinement of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Core-Based Statistical Area (CBSA) definition. They are based on population and commuting information from the 2000 census and the OMB 2003 CBSA definitions. Additional information about the RUCC classification scheme is available on the Internet at http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/rurality/RuralUrbCon/.

 
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Uniform Values
 
VariableDescriptionValueValue Description
PL_RUCC2003Patient location: Rural-Urban Continuum (RUCC) Codes, 2003 1Metro - Counties in metro areas of 1 million population or more
2Metro - Counties in metro areas of 250,000 to 1 million population
3Metro - Counties in metro areas of fewer than 250,000 population
4Non-Metro - Urban population of 20,000 or more, adjacent to a metro area
5Non-Metro - Urban population of 20,000 or more, not adjacent to a metro area
6Non-Metro - Urban population of 2,500 to 19,999, adjacent to a metro area
7Non-Metro - Urban population of 2,500 to 19,999, not adjacent to a metro area
8Non-Metro - Completely rural or less than 2,500 urban population, adjacent to a metro area
9Non-Metro - Completely rural or less than 2,500 urban population, not adjacent to a metro area
.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_rucc2003.
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Last modified 9/11/08