Rural county designation for assistance and other programs
Many different Washington state laws and rules target ‘rural’ counties for assistance and special attention requiring specific definitions for qualifications. The following are the definitions used in statute based on land area and population density.
Population density, land area, and rural definitions by county
Rural definition
In 1999, RCW 82.14.370 was revised to include a rural county definition based on population density. In this legislation, “rural county” was defined as”… a county with a population density less than 100 persons per square mile.” Subsequent legislation expanded the definition to include”… a county smaller than two hundred twenty-five square miles, and a “county with a population density of 100 persons per square mile or greater, with no city with a population greater than 45,000 persons.” Several statutes now use this definition for tax and other assistance programs.
Rural ‘Frontier’ definition
In 2024, Engrossed Substitute House bill 1835 defined frontier one and frontier two designations within the rural county definition for RCW’s 43.160.020, 43.330.010, 82.02.010. A ‘frontier one’ is a county with a population density of 21 persons per square or fewer, a ‘frontier two’ county is a county with a population density of more than 21 persons per square mile but fewer than 50 people per square mile.
