BUILD Location Designations
BUILD location designations are 1) urban or rural, and 2) Area of Persistent Poverty and/or Historically Disadvantaged Community. These location designations affect the Federal share limit, minimum award size, and funding distribution. The BUILD Grant Project Location Verification mapping tool should be used to determine your project’s location designations.
Urban and Rural
A project is designated as “urban” if it is located in a 2020 Census-designated Urban Area (UA) and that UA had a population greater than 200,000.
A project will be designated as “rural” if it is located:
- In an UA that had a population less than 200,000 in the 2020 Census, OR
- Outside of any UA.
Areas of Persistent Poverty and Historically Disadvantaged Communities
A project is located in an Area of Persistent Poverty and a Historically Disadvantaged Community if:
- the County (or equivalent jurisdiction) in which the project is located consistently had greater than or equal to 20 percent of the population living in poverty in all three of the following datasets: (a) the 1990 decennial census; (b) the 2000 decennial census; and (c) the most recent (2022) Small Area Income Poverty Estimates; OR
- the Census Tract in which the project is located has a poverty rate of at least 20 percent as measured by the 2014-2018 5-year data series available from the American Community Survey of the Bureau of the Census; OR
- the project is located in any territory or possession of the United States.
Data from the BUILD Grant Project Location Verification mapping tool is available for optional download using the links below.