A Rural Taxonomy of Population and Health-Resource Characteristics.

This policy brief reports the newly developed taxonomy of rural places based on relevant population and health-resource characteristics; and discusses how this classification tool can be utilized by policy makers and rural communities. Key Findings. (1) We classified 10 distinct types of rural places based on characteristics related to both demand (population) and supply (health resources) sides of the health services market. (2) In descending order, the most significant dimensions in our classification were facility resources, provider resources, economic resources, and age distribution. (3) Each type of rural place was distinct from other types of places based on one or two defining dimensions.