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What is "rural"?
 

"Like such concepts as 'truth,' 'beauty,' or 'justice,' everyone knows the term rural, but no one can define the term very precisely." 
---Weisheit, Falcone & Wells.

This collection of  external links attempt to answer the question, "what is rural?" through geography, demographics, economics, health care, education, logic, philosophy, literature and personal perspective. 

Books lovers will enjoy our list of books which includes the serious, the educational, the informational, the irreverent, the sentimental and the light-hearted, fiction and non-fiction that describe the rural experience from a wide variety of perspectives.

USDA Rural Information Services What is Rural? Defining Rural: Available Resources
Many people have definitions for the term rural, but seldom are these rural definitions in agreement. For some, rural is a subjective state of mind. For others, rural is an objective quantitative measure.

USDA/ Economic Research Service, Measuring Rurality
The economic and social character of rural places varies greatly across the United States. The economy of some rural areas still depends on employment in farming, mining, and timber work—traditional rural extractive industries. .. . . .In contrast, other rural areas, particularly those rich in natural amenities, have experienced economic transformation and rapid population growth. Community leaders in these areas are struggling to provide new roads, schools, and other community services. Frequently, growth transforms the character of the community itself. ERS has developed alternative classifications of rural places that capture the diversity of rural America in ways that are meaningful for developing public policies and programs. 

USDA / Economic Research Service, Rural Indicators Map Machine
 The Rural Indicators Map Machine is an Internet-based mapping utility that provides a visualization of indicators for rural areas available from ERS. These indicators include the Natural Amenities Scale, the Rural Typology Code, the Urban Influence Code, the Rural-urban Continuum Code, and the Rural-urban Commuting Area Code. You can examine the data and get information about the features on the map, move to different geographic levels, and change data layers.

USDA / Economic Research Service, County Typography Codes

USDA / Economic Research Service, State Fact Sheets
State fact sheets provide information on population, employment, income, farm characteristics, and farm financial indicators for each state in the United States.

Educational Resources Information Center:"Rural"--A Concept Beyond Definition? 
The problem of defining "rural" is not new. People know when they are rural, but such perception does not satisfy demographers, policymakers, or educational researchers. After all, difficult policy decisions have to be made and resources have to be allocated on some quantifiable basis. Numbers, however, miss the essence of what it means to be rural, and seldom satisfy those on the receiving end of the definition. Rural people know that rural Maine is not like rural Texas, which in turn is not like rural Georgia or Alaska.. . .

Rural Health Care - Rural Counties by State

National Center for Education Statistics - What's rural
. . .'few issues bedevil analysts and planners concerned with rural education more than the question of what actually constitutes "rural" . . .

Rural Health Research Program:  Defining "Rural"

Health Status Indicators - Center for Disease Control

Health Status indicators - North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis

Race and Place: Urban-Rural Differences in Health for Racial and Ethnic Minorities. March 2000

Frontier Education Center - Frontier Counties in the United States 

Frontier Mental Health Services Resource Network Mental Health Program- Defining rural areas
Rural areas share the common characteristics of  comparatively few people living in the area, limited access to large cities (and sometimes even to smaller towns), and considerable traveling distances to "market areas" for either work or everyday-living activities. They exist along a continuum, however, from more rural to less rural and vary extensively based on the following factors . . . 

Literature and Other Books Defining "Rural"

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