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A stray comment on the culture-war thread from two weeks ago reminds me that, IMO, people on this website have been talking very loosely when they compare "urban", "suburban", and "rural" living.
The definitions endorsed by the United Nations are roughly as follows.
Urban: ≥ 1500 people per km2 (6.1 people per acre)
Suburban: ≥ 300 people per km2 (1.2 people per acre)
Rural: < 300 people per km2 (1.2 people per acre)
However, six people per acre actually isn't that dense. The US's IZC (International Zoning Code) is not necessarily authoritative, but in its single-family and two-family residential zones it permits density of up to six dwelling units per acre, implying 15 people per acre at 2.5 people per household.⁎
Likewise, a representative comment describes suburbs as follows:
Yet, if you look at a random US "city" in Google Maps, you will see lots of single-family houses with their own backyards and limited access to mass transit.
So, what do you actually mean when you say "urban", "suburban", and "rural" living? Maybe it's something like this.
Urban living: Row houses and apartment buildings, with incidental retail
Suburban living: Single-family and two-family houses, and nothing else
Rural living: Incidental single-family houses in land that is largely agricultural or undeveloped
⁎With tongue significantly less than halfway in cheek, I previously suggested that the threshold for a fourth "mega-city" category in the UN's framework might be set at 7500 people per km2 (30 people per acre). This matches the IZC's upper bound for multifamily residential zones (12 dwelling units per acre), past which commercial/residential zones with unlimited dwelling-unit density must be used instead.
Funny, I personallyhave a closer definition to this, than any actual density measures, but I realize that I also incorporate an element of culture into it as well.
I can explain thusly:
Urban: People get around by foot or bike or public transport.
Suburban: Mostly cars, interspersed with bikes.
Rural: Trucks, horses, or occasional farm equipment.
Likewise, 'how far' do you have to travel to get to the nearest live theater? If you live in an area that is technically sparsely populated but you can drive <20 minutes and see a live production, that's gotta be suburban. If you can walk to see one, OBVIOUSLY Urban.
All of these are correlates with density, so it really just helps sort out the gray areas of the spectrum, I guess. I know of areas that are sparsely populated but wealthy with plenty of amenities in driving range so they're 'suburban' for most pursuits and purposes, even if the locals keep and ride horses. The workers may come in from the nearest metro area, which adds to that point.
Likewise, areas composed of single family homes lined up for miles, which is the stereotypical suburb, but low income and you DO occasionally people keeping farm animals, and its an hour to the nearest theater are 'rural-coded' in my mind, even if there's technically no agriculture going on.
If you put a large apartment block in the middle of nowhere, that might have decently high density but no way is it 'urban', too.
Finally, you can get weird situations where high tourist areas are 'urban' in that there's a ton of people that come around seasonally but it quiets down so much outside of that you might as well be living rurally.
This would mean that a lot of countries (it's easy to single out the United States with respect to this, but it is true of many places elsewhere, and not just in the developed world) have a vanishingly small number of urban spaces.
Unironically yes. Qualitatively, the day-to-day experience of living in Houston or LA feels more like living in a very expansive suburb than like being in NYC, London, or Tokyo.
I agree with this. For purposes of debates about urbanism, development, "flight," etc. it's reasonable to think of most of Houston as being suburban.
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Was going to say. There's no denying that the U.S. as a whole is not very 'urbanized' compared to a lot of nations.
Its really just "pockets" of high urbanism, TONS AND TONS of rural, buffered by the suburban zones. Although in Florida there's a whole lot of pockets of suburbs rather disconnected from anything else.
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