Problems of Definition in Locating Rural-Urban Population in Sparse Land Areas or Maximum Feasible Misunderstanding Arising from Census Data.

Rural demographic characteristics, regional distribution, and their respective trends should constitute significant policy information for the nation, but the U.S. Population Census offers little aid to the researcher studying population on a minor civil division (MCD) basis. When some census data are based on a 15 percent sample, some on a 5 percent sample, the task of intelligent research and planning becomes "hazardous". For example, comparison of 1960 with 1970 census data on the Rio Grande Basin proved impossible, due to changes in size and scope of MCD's and changes in MCD population age groupings. Urban bias in the use of "metropolitan" and "non-metropolitan", terms to which the words urban and rural are often applied, creates misunderstanding as exemplified in a report titled "Back to the Boonies--Small Towns Thrive as Urban Migration Reverses". This title does not reflect the fact that people moving out of urban areas are not necessarily moving into rural areas (a phenomenon which is neither rural farm or even rural nonfarm). The Census Bureau, then, should firm up MCD boundaries, because man-made barriers (reservoirs, interstate highways, old and new resource sites, etc.) require new delineation for MCD's so that demographic data can be made available for planning and research. (JC)