Exurban describes the ring of low-density development that sits beyond the suburbs but isn’t quite rural. These are communities typically 30 to 60-plus miles from a major city center, where houses sit on large lots, open land still dominates the landscape, and nearly everyone drives to get anywhere. Researchers generally define exurban density as roughly one home per 1 to 40 acres, which is far more spread out than a subdivision but more built-up than farmland or wilderness.
Where Exurbs Sit on the Urban-Rural Spectrum
Think of it as a gradient. At one end you have a dense city core with apartments and transit. Next comes the suburbs, with their neighborhoods, strip malls, and school zones. Beyond that is the exurban fringe: pockets of residential development scattered among farms, forests, or desert. At the far end sits truly rural land where neighbors may be miles apart.
Exurbs blur the line between suburban and rural. A household might have a two-acre lot with a well and septic system, yet one or both adults commute into a metro area for work. Some exurban communities look like small towns with a main street and a few shops. Others are simply clusters of homes along a county road with no commercial center at all. What ties them together is their economic connection to a nearby city combined with a physical distance and density that feel nothing like the suburbs.
Why Exurbs Are Growing So Fast
Exurban communities were already expanding before 2020, but the pandemic supercharged the trend. U.S. Census Bureau data shows that by 2023, there were more exurbs among the nation’s fastest-growing places than in 2019, while fast-growing communities within 10 to 20 miles of a city center declined in number. The shift was dramatic in metro areas like Phoenix. Eloy, Arizona, more than 60 miles south of downtown Phoenix, grew 8.6% in a single year compared to 1.5% before the pandemic. Nearby Coolidge surged from 1.6% growth to 9.4%. Together, four exurban communities south of Phoenix contributed a full third of the entire metro area’s population growth, up from just 4% a few years earlier.
Meanwhile, Phoenix itself slowed from 1.6% annual growth to 0.4%, and close-in suburbs like Mesa actually lost population. The pattern repeated across the country: growth migrating outward, farther from city centers. Remote and hybrid work made long commutes less frequent, and lower land costs made larger homes affordable for families priced out of suburban markets closer in.
Daily Life in Exurban Communities
Car dependence is the defining feature of exurban living. Public transit is essentially nonexistent. In rural and exurban census tracts, less than 1% of workers use public transportation to get to work, compared to nearly 6% in urban tracts. Walking and biking rates are similarly low for commuting purposes. Nearly every errand, from groceries to a doctor’s appointment, requires a drive.
That distance adds up in health-related ways. Access to specialty medical care can be a real challenge. Rural and exurban patients travel on average nearly three times as far as urban patients for specialty treatment, roughly 41 miles versus 15 miles in one large Medicare study. The nearest facility is often more than four times farther away. For routine care, many exurban residents rely on a single family practice or urgent care clinic in a nearby small town.
Schools, fire stations, and other public services tend to be spread thin. Property taxes fund a smaller tax base, so road maintenance, snow removal, and emergency response times can lag behind suburban standards. On the other hand, residents often cite the space, quiet, lower cost of living, and sense of independence as reasons they chose to move out that far.
Health Risks Tied to Sprawling Development
The built environment of exurban areas can quietly shape health outcomes. Research published in the American Journal of Public Health found that sprawling, car-dependent communities are linked to higher rates of being overweight and obese, even after controlling for income and other factors. Each incremental increase in sprawl was associated with a 0.5% higher risk of obesity. The proposed pathway is straightforward: more sprawl means more driving, less walking, less physical activity, and over time, higher rates of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Parks, gyms, and fitness facilities tend to be farther away in exurban areas, reducing the likelihood that residents use them regularly. Destinations like workplaces, stores, and restaurants are rarely within walking distance, so even people who want to be active during their daily routine have few practical options. The food environment can also be limited, with fewer grocery stores and more reliance on convenience options.
Environmental Trade-Offs
Exurban development has an outsized ecological footprint relative to the number of people it houses. Because homes are spread across large lots rather than clustered together, even modest population growth can consume significant amounts of open land. Research in the journal Ecological Applications found that exurban-density development, defined as roughly 6 to 25 homes per square kilometer, reduces survival and reproduction for many native species. Native species richness drops as housing density increases.
The mechanisms are what you’d expect. Habitat gets fragmented by roads, driveways, and cleared yards. Pets and outdoor lighting disturb wildlife. Invasive plants spread from landscaped lots into surrounding natural areas. Some human-adapted species like raccoons, deer, and certain songbirds thrive, but specialist species that need large, undisturbed habitat blocks decline. Because exurban development is so spread out, it can fragment more total land area than a denser suburb housing the same number of people.
Political Leanings
Exurban areas tend to lean Republican, though they don’t fit neatly into the rural conservative stereotype. Pew Research Center data shows that suburban voters are almost evenly split between the two major parties, with 50% aligning Republican and 47% Democratic. Rural areas skew more heavily Republican, particularly among White voters, 66% of whom identify with the Republican Party in rural counties compared to 57% in the suburbs. Exurbs generally fall somewhere between these two profiles, leaning right but with more political diversity than deep-rural areas, especially in exurbs near major metropolitan centers where transplants from the city bring more varied political views.
How Exurban Differs From Suburban and Rural
- Lot size: Exurban lots typically range from 1 to 40 acres, far larger than a suburban quarter-acre but smaller than a working farm or ranch.
- Infrastructure: Suburbs have municipal water, sewer, and often transit connections. Exurbs frequently rely on wells, septic systems, and two-lane roads with no transit service.
- Economic ties: Unlike rural communities that may depend on agriculture or resource extraction, exurban households are usually tied economically to a metro area through commuting or remote work.
- Growth trajectory: Rural populations in many parts of the country are stable or shrinking. Exurban areas are among the fastest-growing community types in the United States.
- Services: Suburbs offer nearby hospitals, multiple school options, and commercial variety. Exurbs have fewer of all three, though they typically have more than truly rural areas.