Daniel G. Brown, Kenneth M. Johnson, Thomas R. Loveland, and David M. Theobald. 2005. Rural land-use trends in the conterminous United States, 1950–2000. Ecological Applications 15:1851–1863.

Appendix A (Table A1). Summary table of population density and private-land areas occupied by urban, exurban, and crop land-uses for each ecoregion and county type. Population and settlement density data are from 1950, 1970, and 2000, whereas cropland areas are from 1949, 1974, and 1997.

				1949/1950				1970/1974				1997/2000
		N†	Area (in ha)	Population‡ density (per sq. km.)	Urban§ (%)	Exurban§ (%)	Cropland|| (%)	Population density (per sq. km.)	Urban (%)	Exurban (%)	Cropland (%)	Population density (per sq. km.)	Urban (%)	Exurban (%)	Cropland (%)
Conterminous U.S.	Metro-transitional	422	65,523,082	25	0.3%	7.2%	35.9%	37	0.9%	23.5%	30.6%	67	2.1%	49.8%	28.3%
	Metro-continuous	416	69,857,577	131	2.1%	16.6%	35.0%	189	5.7%	35.5%	27.2%	255	10.0%	52.3%	25.0%
	Nonmetro-Adjacent	876	143,786,398	12	0.1%	2.9%	33.3%	16	0.2%	13.1%	37.8%	21	0.4%	29.1%	36.8%
	Nonmetro-Nonadjacent	1395	282,444,320	9	0.1%	2.3%	34.6%	7	0.1%	4.9%	30.0%	8	0.2%	10.1%	29.4%
	Total	3109	561,611,377	27	0.3%	4.8%	34.5%	36	0.9%	13.0%	31.7%	49	1.7%	24.8%	30.6%
Eastern Temperate	Metro-transitional	326	40,360,093	32	0.4%	9.2%	37.0%	46	1.0%	31.3%	29.9%	78	2.5%	63.9%	27.6%
Forests¶	Metro-continuous	295	36,688,285	185	2.8%	24.0%	38.2%	246	6.9%	51.4%	28.2%	287	11.3%	69.8%	24.8%
	Nonmetro-Adjacent	642	84,033,849	19	0.1%	4.7%	38.2%	20	0.3%	17.2%	33.0%	26	0.4%	38.9%	31.7%
	Nonmetro-Nonadjacent	522	60,310,829	18	0.1%	3.6%	35.0%	17	0.2%	13.9%	30.7%	21	0.3%	29.8%	29.3%
	Total	1785	221,393,056	48	0.6%	8.4%	37.1%	61	1.5%	24.5%	31.0%	77	2.6%	46.0%	29.2%
Great Plains	Metro-transitional	52	11,744,825	14	0.1%	2.8%	46.8%	19	0.4%	9.1%	44.4%	40	1.1%	27.0%	42.5%
	Metro-continuous	66	15,302,372	54	1.0%	5.7%	42.0%	90	3.5%	14.2%	36.3%	148	6.6%	29.4%	35.6%
	Nonmetro-Adjacent	240	53,850,773	7	0.0%	1.8%	41.1%	7	0.1%	3.6%	41.9%	8	0.1%	5.8%	41.6%
	Nonmetro-Nonadjacent	510	127,922,419	5	0.0%	1.1%	44.5%	4	0.1%	2.2%	45.1%	4	0.1%	2.8%	44.9%
	Total	868	208,820,390	10	0.1%	1.7%	43.6%	12	0.4%	3.8%	43.6%	18	0.6%	6.9%	43.2%
Marine West Coast	Metro-transitional	7	814,386	34	0.5%	15.5%	24.1%	53	1.4%	30.1%	18.3%	118	4.3%	50.5%	17.4%
Forest	Metro-continuous	5	921,312	106	2.5%	16.2%	21.5%	175	6.2%	27.0%	15.6%	269	11.1%	46.6%	13.0%
	Nonmetro-Adjacent	6	814,140	19	0.3%	4.7%	10.9%	23	0.9%	20.3%	7.8%	33	0.9%	27.3%	8.3%
	Nonmetro-Nonadjacent	5	771,401	14	0.2%	3.0%	7.7%	18	0.5%	11.2%	5.2%	25	0.9%	22.4%	4.6%
	Total	23	3,321,239	46	0.9%	10.1%	16.3%	71	4.4%	34.2%	11.9%	118	4.6%	37.2%	11.0%
Mediterranean	Metro-transitional	11	4,181,662	21	0.3%	6.2%	38.8%	39	1.2%	15.2%	32.3%	80	2.7%	26.2%	34.2%
California	Metro-continuous	16	5,985,527	140	2.9%	9.5%	36.3%	262	8.2%	17.2%	28.2%	411	12.8%	28.0%	28.2%
	Nonmetro-Adjacent	7	1,969,367	6	0.0%	1.5%	34.1%	9	0.2%	5.9%	28.0%	18	0.5%	13.8%	27.5%
	Nonmetro-Nonadjacent	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Total	34	12,136,556	77	1.5%	7.0%	36.8%	144	4.5%	14.7%	29.6%	233	7.3%	25.1%	30.2%
North American Desert	Metro-transitional	12	4,392,729	11	0.1%	2.3%	16.9%	14	0.4%	6.0%	19.5%	34	1.2%	18.3%	10.3%
	Metro-continuous	13	5,342,659	36	0.6%	6.4%	13.6%	84	3.2%	16.0%	11.1%	227	9.5%	34.9%	8.6%
	Nonmetro-Adjacent	26	8,544,396	5	0.0%	1.2%	23.5%	6	0.1%	2.7%	23.8%	11	0.3%	6.1%	23.9%
	Nonmetro-Nonadjacent	109	38,622,511	3	0.0%	0.6%	12.5%	4	0.1%	1.6%	14.0%	6	0.1%	4.1%	13.3%
	Total	160	56,902,294	7	0.1%	1.3%	14.6%	12	0.4%	3.4%	15.6%	30	1.1%	8.4%	14.2%
Northern Forests	Metro-transitional	5	1,485,474	15	0.2%	7.8%	13.1%	19	0.3%	17.6%	7.5%	26	0.4%	38.2%	6.1%
	Metro-continuous	11	3,009,738	73	1.3%	18.4%	11.3%	100	2.7%	31.3%	5.8%	114	4.1%	43.9%	4.8%
	Nonmetro-Adjacent	33	9,045,790	11	0.1%	7.5%	11.1%	13	0.2%	14.8%	7.2%	16	0.2%	34.4%	6.3%
	Nonmetro-Nonadjacent	64	16,383,834	9	0.1%	4.1%	10.6%	9	0.1%	8.3%	6.7%	11	0.2%	22.6%	5.9%
	Total	113	29,924,836	16	0.2%	6.7%	11.0%	20	0.4%	13.0%	6.8%	24	0.6%	29.1%	5.9%
Northwestern Forested	Metro-transitional	8	2,295,248	15	0.2%	5.1%	14.7%	25	0.6%	14.4%	11.7%	57	1.9%	31.6%	11.2%
Mountains	Metro-continuous	8	1,847,981	85	1.8%	15.8%	24.4%	148	5.4%	34.6%	17.7%	263	10.9%	54.2%	16.0%
	Nonmetro-Adjacent	34	6,099,159	9	0.1%	3.3%	11.9%	11	0.2%	8.1%	9.2%	11	0.5%	26.1%	9.4%
	Nonmetro-Nonadjacent	60	10,835,738	6	0.1%	1.9%	18.6%	7	0.2%	4.4%	15.7%	7	0.3%	11.4%	16.2%
	Total	110	21,078,127	15	0.2%	3.8%	16.8%	23	0.4%	7.3%	13.5%	23	1.4%	21.5%	13.7%
Southern Semi-arid	Metro-transitional	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Highlands	Metro-continuous	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Nonmetro-Adjacent	2	788,000	5	0.1%	2.3%	2.4%	10	0.2%	5.6%	8.2%	20	0.4%	15.9%	6.5%
	Nonmetro-Nonadjacent	1	541,747	2	0.0%	0.2%	2.7%	3	0.1%	1.7%	3.7%	0	0.1%	4.2%	0.0%
	Total	3	1,329,747	4	0.0%	1.4%	2.5%	7	0.1%	4.0%	6.4%	14	0.3%	11.2%	3.9%
								0				0
Temperate Sierras	Metro-transitional	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Metro-continuous	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Nonmetro-Adjacent	4	2,149,409	3	0.0%	0.9%	2.7%	6	0.1%	3.7%	1.4%	14	0.4%	10.5%	1.0%
	Nonmetro-Nonadjacent	4	3,332,821	2	0.0%	0.5%	1.2%	2	0.0%	1.3%	0.5%	5	0.2%	2.8%	0.4%
	Total	8	5,482,230	2	0.0%	0.7%	1.8%	4	0.1%	2.3%	0.9%	9	0.3%	5.8%	0.6%
Tropical Wet Forests	Metro-transitional	1	248,664	3	0.0%	1.3%	1.9%	15	0.3%	6.9%	4.6%	101	6.2%	25.8%	11.3%
	Metro-continuous	2	759,703	26	0.3%	5.9%	11.2%	129	5.0%	12.2%	20.7%	363	18.3%	18.4%	28.5%
	Nonmetro-Adjacent	2	214,535	16	0.0%	1.3%	1.3%	32	0.1%	4.7%	10.8%	54	2.0%	18.4%	13.7%
	Nonmetro-Nonadjacent	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Total	5	1,222,903	20	0.2%	4.1%	7.5%	89	5.8%	8.8%	15.7%	255	13.0%	19.9%	22.4%

† N is the number of counties in each region and each category.

‡ Population density is from the U.S. Census Bureau (20xx).

§ Data on area settled at urban and exurban densities was calculated by Theobald (2001).

|| Data on cropland areas is from Waisanen and Bliss (2002).

¶ Ecoregions were defined by Omernik (1987).

LITERATURE CITED

Omernik, J. M. 1987. Ecoregions of the conterminous United States. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 77:118–125.

Theobald, D. M. 2001. Land-use dynamics beyond the American urban fringe. The Geographical Review 91(3):544–564.

U.S. Census Bureau

Waisanen, P. J., and N. B. Bliss. 2002. Changes in population and agricultural land in conterminous United States counties, 1790 to 1997. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 16(4), Article no. 1137.