HRSA published a final notice with updates to the criteria for defining rural areas. This notice responds to comments on the proposed inclusion of terrain factors published in April 2024. Changes implemented by this final notice took effect Nov. 21st, 2024. FORHP uses this rural definition for determining rural health grant eligibility. This update incorporates a new Road Ruggedness Scale (RRS) from the Economic Research Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The update also includes a technical clarification about treatment of Census Bureau-defined urban areas in the definition given the removal of the term Urbanized Areas following the 2020 Census. See How We Define Rural for more information. We are updating the Rural Health Grants Eligibility Analyzer at the end of the day on Nov. 21st.
