Franklin County, MO -- suburban or rural?

[MarkD]

Evidence that it is suburban:
Population 104,682
Long treated as part of the St. Louis Metropolitan Area https://statisticalatlas.com/metro-area/Missouri/St-Louis/Overview

Evidence that it is rural:
Interstate 44 has a maximum speed limit of 70 mph all of the way through the county, and for most of the distance it has only two lanes each direction
The combined population of the five largest cities -- Washington, Union, Pacific, Sullivan, and St. Clair -- is less than half of the entire county, so there are far more Franklin County residents living in rural areas than in cities

[Vice President Christian Man]

Exurban but I guess rural is the closest to that.

[JGibson]

Exurban would be the correct answer, but rural got my vote.

[Del Tachi]

Exurban.

[Smash255]

Would rank it as Exurban, though if just giving the option of Suburban or Rural, certainly Rural

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Exurban but I guess rural is the closest to that.

[MarkD]

Giving this thread a bump again because I thought of another reason to call Franklin County rural: probably the most popular tourist attraction in the county is Meramec Caverns, in the south-central part of the county, near the small town of Stanton. Stanton is located pretty much in between St. Clair and Sullivan. Furthermore, in between St. Clair and Stanton there is a highway rest area, which is unusual for most suburban areas.

I was thinking today about these things because today I spent a great deal of time in Franklin County because of my job. About 9 months ago I started working as a delivery driver for an auto parts warehouse, and I have delivered to several auto repair shops and auto dealers in Franklin County several times in these 9 months. Today, I had a total of 86 auto parts to deliver to 19 repair shops/dealerships in the truck that I drove, and I delivered 39 of those parts to 10 places in Franklin County. It was on a delivery route like the one I did today that I previously thought of asking this question.

[mileslunn]

I would say exurban as while close enough one can commute to St. Louis, it is still largely countryside not housing subdivisions.  Never mind population density is only 110 people/square mile which is not that much above US overall density and well below most European and Asian countries.  In England, I believe there are around only 5 constituencies at most that have population densities below that so unless you want to classify Low Countries, Germany, England as 100% urban (and anyone who has travelled there would say that is not the case), seems awfully low density for suburban.

I generally believe a county needs to have a density above 500 people/square mile to be considered suburban unless much of county is empty and part people live in is mostly suburban.  But such counties largely confined to Western US where you have mountains and desert.  Heck even 1100/square mile if evenly distributed is still a very low density suburb and most counties at that density likely have some countryside and that is 10x its density. 

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I would say exurban as while close enough one can commute to St. Louis, it is still largely countryside not housing subdivisions.  Never mind population density is only 110 people/square mile which is not that much above US overall density and well below most European and Asian countries.  In England, I believe there are around only 5 constituencies at most that have population densities below that so unless you want to classify Low Countries, Germany, England as 100% urban (and anyone who has travelled there would say that is not the case), seems awfully low density for suburban.

I generally believe a county needs to have a density above 500 people/square mile to be considered suburban unless much of county is empty and part people live in is mostly suburban.  But such counties largely confined to Western US where you have mountains and desert.  Heck even 1100/square mile if evenly distributed is still a very low density suburb and most counties at that density likely have some countryside and that is 10x its density. 

I don't agree with that.  I didn't have a real frame of reference for those numbers, but I checked Williamson County, and it's just 448 people per square mile.  Yes, we certainly have some countryside (especially the western part of the county), but the vast majority of people in Williamson County would say that they live in the suburbs, if they're being honest.

[mileslunn]

I would say exurban as while close enough one can commute to St. Louis, it is still largely countryside not housing subdivisions.  Never mind population density is only 110 people/square mile which is not that much above US overall density and well below most European and Asian countries.  In England, I believe there are around only 5 constituencies at most that have population densities below that so unless you want to classify Low Countries, Germany, England as 100% urban (and anyone who has travelled there would say that is not the case), seems awfully low density for suburban.

I generally believe a county needs to have a density above 500 people/square mile to be considered suburban unless much of county is empty and part people live in is mostly suburban.  But such counties largely confined to Western US where you have mountains and desert.  Heck even 1100/square mile if evenly distributed is still a very low density suburb and most counties at that density likely have some countryside and that is 10x its density. 

I don't agree with that.  I didn't have a real frame of reference for those numbers, but I checked Williamson County, and it's just 448 people per square mile.  Yes, we certainly have some countryside (especially the western part of the county), but the vast majority of people in Williamson County would say that they live in the suburbs, if they're being honest.

448 is pretty close to 500 so 500 is just approximate.  But 110 is definitely not suburban except for maybe a few in West where county is mostly desert and mountains and only a small part has people living in them.

[Schiff for Senate]

Exurban but I guess rural is the closest to that.

This. Otoh, Jefferson County is clearly suburban.