Let's build an relevant "urban/suburban/rural county" map

[Del Tachi]

I could certainly handle Mississippi and Alabama.

But I think we'd be making a major mistake if we did not include a "small town" type category.

[Del Tachi]

I could certainly handle Mississippi and Alabama.

But I think we'd be making a major mistake if we did not include a "small town" type category.

What would we consider a small town? Any town over 50,000, 20,000, 10,000, 5,000? Depending on how low you get almost every county could be considered a small town county.

"Small town counties" would be those where a majority (or at least a significant portion) of the county population resides in a single jurisdiction of between 10,000 to 100,000 people.

Maybe something like that?

[Del Tachi]

Here's an initial crack a Mississippi based loosely on RINO Tom's categories and a heaping amount of local discretion.

Purple - Urban, Light Purple - Suburb, Dark Blue - Large City, Powder Blue - Small City, Pale - Rural.

The two suburban counties located in the north and south of the state are associated with Memphis and New Orleans, respectively.

[Del Tachi]

Here's what I've come up with so far. There are several counties where I'm not particularly happy (lots of the exurbia in NE AL; Tuscaloosa, AL; some county on the MS Gulf Coast I already forgot; FL was quite frustrating, etc), but this was the output:

Not that this is a big deal, but the red-to-green color scheme works terrible for maps like these because those colors have strong associations with value judgement (i.e., green="good" and red="bad").  Even sticking with the red-to-green scheme, it would make more sense for the urban areas to be red because red suggests "higher intensity" or "heat" which would be more associated with cities in this context.  However, I would suggest adopting a more neutral color scheme.

Also, I think you're being too stingy with the "Mini-Metro" category and too generous with "Exurbia" (which, if you're from Metro Atlanta, I can definitely understand haha).  Tuscaloosa, AL is definitely more like a Mini-Metro even if it is close to Birmingham, and Fort Payne definitely feels more rural than Oconee County, GA even though DeKalb County has an Interstate and is close to "urban" Huntsville.  Maybe adjust the population caps?