Exurban Change Program - Low Density Settlement

In 2002, low density settlement, or rural/wilderness, comprised 879,389 sq. mi., or 36.9%, of the American landscape (not including federal lands).  An estimated 25,329,676, or 9.0%, of Americans live in that settlement type.

Focusing only on metropolitan areas, medium density settlement comprises 333,442 sq. mi., or 45.2% of the landscape (not including federal lands).  An estimated 11,267,468, or 4.8%, of metropolitan area people live in that settlement type.

To learn more about this dataset, see how we operationalized these categories - Click Here.