A commuting zone is a geographic area used in population and economic analysis. In addition to the major use of urban areas, it may be used to define rural areas which share a common market. According to the Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture: In 2000, there were 709 commuting zones delineated for the U.S. using the same methodology as was used in the previous decades. Labor market areas were not estimated for 2000, because many researchers found them to be too large and not as useful as the commuting zones."