GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS
Although the analysis conducted by the exurban change project varies in scale from local to regional, data collected for the project is primarily at the sub-county level. This includes data at the township, place, block group and census tract levels. Research and applied analysis are focused on the continuum of change across the rural-exurban-suburban-urban landscape, with particular emphasis on exurban townships and villages in Ohio. The rational for this approach is based on several factors: (1) little data has been accumulated for township level analysis, (2) sub-county data is the most relevant for local decision-makers in localities (i.e. townships, small villages) across Ohio, and (3) due to the large size of traditional units of measurement in rural areas (i.e. counties), township and other sub-county level analysis may provide the best scale to indicate the complex changes across across the exurban and rural landscapes.
COLLECTING TOWNSHIP DATA
Township data is derived from extracting “place remainder” data from the census bureau. Place remainder data is a very detailed level of geography and includes data for those persons residing in the township area. Persons living in cities and villages are not contained in this data. In summary, the township data reported in this report represents all demographic and population attributes of persons residing in the unincorporated land in the state and does not account for the population residing in a village or city. Place remainder data is more detailed than the traditional MCD (minor civil divisions) level of geography often used by the Census Bureau. Often MCD level geography does not disaggregate population residing in villages or cities from population living in townships, thus MCD level data is not an accurate representation of population residing in unincorporated areas. MCD level data will not match the township totals presented in here. Census Designated Places or CDP’s are concentrations of population or economic activity that is not within a city or village. The Census Bureau separates these place from township counts. Because Census Designated Places do represent township population and are not affiliated with any city or village these population counts were recalculated back into the township data according to the township(s) within which the CDP existed.