Mark Schneider
Commissioner, National Center for Education Statistics
New Classificatory Scheme for Locale Codes
June 12, 2006
In March 2006 NCES revised its system of locale codes. Locale codes were first developed by NCES in the 1980's and are widely used for tasks such as drawing samples, stratifying survey results, or identifying rural schools.
The new locale code system includes four major categories: city, suburban, town, and rural. Cities and suburbs are further divided into categories of small, mid-size, or large. Towns and rural areas can be characterized by their proximity to an urbanized area as fringe, distant, or remote.
Two advances led to the improved locale code system. First, technical improvements increased our ability to pin-point a location on a map. Second, following the 2000 Decennial Census, new geographical concepts and definitions were introduced by the US Census Bureau. Given these changes, NCES supported work by the Census Bureau to develop a locale code methodology that more accurately distinguishes between towns and suburbs, allows greater distinction between cities of different sizes, and describes towns and rural areas in terms of how far they are from urbanized areas.
What are locale codes?
"Locale codes" are derived from a classification system originally developed by NCES in the 1980's to describe a school's location ranging from "large city" to "rural." The codes are based on the physical location represented by an address that is matched against a geographic database maintained by the Census Bureau. This database is the Topographically Integrated and Geographically Encoded Referencing system, or TIGER.
In 2005 and 2006, NCES supported work by the Census Bureau to redesign the original locale codes in light of changes in the U.S. population and the definition of key geographic concepts.
Why did NCES revise its locale code system?
Two developments following the 2000 Decennial Census led to a change in NCES's locale code system. The first was the substantial improvement in geocoding technology that made it possible to locate addresses precisely, using longitude and latitude coordinates.
The second development was a change in the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) definition of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. OMB re-examines and fine-tunes basic geographic concepts and definitions after every decennial Census. The revisions following the 2000 census were more extensive than they had been in 1990 and 1980. OMB introduced a "core based statistical area" system that relied less on population size and county boundaries and more on the proximity of an address to an urbanized area.
What are the new locale codes like?
The new locale codes are based on an address's proximity to an urbanized area (a densely settled core with densely settled surrounding areas). This is a change from the original system based on metropolitan statistical areas. To distinguish the two systems, the new system is referred to as "urban-centric locale codes."
The urban-centric locale code system classifies territory into four major types: city, suburban, town, and rural. Each type has three subcategories. For city and suburb, these are gradations of size – large, midsize, and small. Towns and rural areas are further distinguished by their distance from an urbanized area. They can be characterized as fringe, distant, or remote.
What is the net effect of the change to an urban-centric system?
Compared to the old locale code system, the urban-centric locale codes allow more precision in describing an area. For example, there is a new category for small cities, and rural areas that are truly remote can be distinguished from those closer to an urban core. The urban-centric system places a larger number of addresses in town locales and correspondingly fewer in suburbs/urban fringe. However, the percent of schools that are in city locales does not change much with the urban-centric system. The same is true for the percent of schools in rural locales.
How accurate are urban-centric locale codes?
Geocoding technology has made it possible to know the exact latitude and longitude of about 91 percent of schools, and somewhat less precise locations for the remaining 9 percent. The TIGER database used in assigning locale codes updates information for about one-third of communities every year through the American Community Survey. These developments make today's locale codes far more accurate than was possible in the past.
How are locale codes assigned to school districts?
A school district's locale code is not assigned on the basis of the central office address. It is derived from the locale codes of the schools in the district. If 50 percent or more of the public school students attend schools with the same locale code, that locale code is assigned to the district. For example, if 60 percent of students were enrolled in schools with a "rural - distant" locale code, and 40 percent were enrolled in schools with a "town - small" locale code, the district would be assigned a "rural - distant" locale code. If no single locale code accounts for 50 percent of the students, then the major category (city, suburb, town, or rural) with the greatest percent of students determines the locale; the locale code assigned is the smallest or most remote subcategory for that category.
Commissioner Mark Schneider's Powerpoint Presentation to the Secretary of Education's Rural Education Task Force:
NCES' Identification of Rural Locales 
(6.2 MB)
For more information, visit the CCD page on Identification of Rural Locales.
