Many urban areas will be re-classified as rural under new Census Bureau rules

The Associated Press reported here.  An excerpt from the story follows:  

Hundreds of urban areas in the U.S. are becoming rural, but it's not because people are leaving.

It's just that the U.S. Census Bureau is changing the definition of an urban area. Under the new criteria, more than 1,300 small cities, towns and villages designated urban a decade ago would be considered rural.

That matters because urban and rural areas qualify for different types of federal funding. Some communities worry the change could affect health clinics in rural areas as well as transportation and education funding from federal programs. But leaders in other communities designated to lose their urban status say it won't make a difference.

“We are rural and we feel rural, and that’s how we already identify," said Randy Reeg, city administrator of Mauston, Wisconsin, a city of 4,347 residents about 75 miles northwest of Madison.

Groups like the American Hospital Association say the changes, which are the biggest being made to the definitions in decades, could cause problems for people who need medical care in rural areas.

“Going with the new definition could limit the number of rural health clinics moving forward and have a negative impact on rural access to care," said Shannon Wu, senior associate director of policy at the hospital association.