NCES EDGE Locale Classifications

Dataset defines locale classifications by geography. A locale classification is a general geographic indicator that describes the type of area where a school is located. NCES classifies all territory in the U.S. into four types – City, Suburban, Town, and Rural – and each type is divided into three subtypes based on population size or proximity to populated areas. The classifications begin with standard urban and rural criteria defined by the Census Bureau, and NCES extends these designations to provide additional detail. Locale boundaries can be used with a geographic information system (GIS) to assign the NCES locale framework to other types of geographic data. They can also be used to identify places and conditions contained within or across different types of locales.