The chart below shows the number of active-duty Army recruits per 1000 youth from the South according to urbanity and rurality in 2005.  The Army recruits from the South were put into counties based on each recruit's ZIP code using Claritas data purchased by NPP.  The recruits by counties were then organized into the urban-rural continuum produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Counties with no recruits were excluded. There are nine continuum codes with the first three defining metropolitan counties.  Metro counties include all counties that are part of the Census-defined Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSAs).  There are 280 MSAs in the country accounting for about 85% of the population.  Metro counties are basically urban and suburban areas.  Non-metropolitan (or rural) counties have been displayed on the graph in two bars - non-metro (codes four through seven) and (completely) rural (codes eight and nine).  Completely rural counties have urban populations of fewer than 2,500.  Click here for more details on the rural-urban continuum.

Notes: Army data were obtained from the Army through a FOIA request submitted by NPP.