A number of possible geographic delineations can be used for areal allocation of population, income, employment, and other social and economic characteristics, in a rural developm~nt indicator system. This paper shows that estimates of statistical parameters vary for alternative geographic aggregations and for alternative delineations at a given level of aggregation, and that estimates of stanstical para· meters for alternative delineations vary as the level of structural disaggregation of variables used in the analysis is varied. Nine delineations and 12 characteristics were used to examine the statistical consequences of alternative delineations.