Rural America By What Standards

The Panel on Statistics for Rural Development Policy was established to assess the current quality and availability of data for rural development policy--a more difficult task than might first appear. Until recent decades, rural development was commonly understood to be the development of agriculture. As science and technology transformed U. S. agriculture and as rural communities have grown, however, farming has accounted for a declining portion of the employment and economic activity in rural areas. What rural development means or should mean today has become a difficult and often contentious question. Indeed, what is meant by rural cannot be clearly conceptualized or statistically defined. Many rural officials believe that inappropriate but well-intended federal (and state) decisions have eroded their communities' integrity and capacity for self-determination. The sense of independence and community that has been so strong in rural society is now threatened. Thirteen chapters cover "Rural America: Known and Unknown,""What is Rural Development,""Discovering What Concerns Rural America,""User Characteristics and Purposes,""Demographic Data,""Housing,""Health and Nutrition,""Education,""Public Services and Community Facilities,""Economic Development,""Natural Resources and Energy,""Strategies for Improving Rural Development Information," and "Summary and Recommendations." There are eight appendixes. (Author/BRR)

Throughout much of its history, the United States was predominantly a rural society. The need to provide sustenance resulted in many people settling in areas where food could be raised for their families. Over the past century, however, a quiet shift from a rural to an urban society occurred, such that by 1920, for the first time, more members of our society lived in urban regions than in rural ones. This was made possible by changing agricultural practices. No longer must individuals raise their own food, and the number of person-hours and acreage required to produce food has steadily been decreasing because of technological advances, according to Roundtable member James Merchant of the University of Iowa. The Institute of Medicine's Roundtable on Environmental Health Science, Research, and Medicine held a regional workshop at the University of Iowa on November 29 and 30, 2004, to look at rural environmental health issues. Iowa, with its expanse of rural land area, growing agribusiness, aging population, and increasing immigrant population, provided an opportunity to explore environmental health in a region of the country that is not as densely populated. As many workshop participants agreed, the shifting agricultural practices as the country progresses from family operations to large-scale corporate farms will have impacts on environmental health. This report describes and summarizes the participants' presentations to the Roundtable members and the discussions that the members had with the presenters and participants at the workshop.

Important differences persist between rural and urban America, despite profound economic changes and the notorious homogenizing influence of the media. As Glenn V. Fuguitt, David L. Brown, and Calvin L. Beale show in Rural and Small Town America, the much-heralded disappearance of small town life has not come to pass, and the nonmetropolitan population still constitutes a significant dimension of our nation's social structure. Based on census and other recent survey data, this impressive study provides a detailed and comparative picture of rural America. The authors find that size of place is a critical demographic factor, affecting population composition (rural populations are older and more predominantly male than urban populations), the distribution of poverty (urban poverty tends to be concentrated in neighborhoods; rural poverty may extend over large blocks of counties), and employment opportunities (job quality and income are lower in rural areas, though rural occupational patterns are converging with those of urban areas). In general, rural and small town America still lags behind urban America on many indicators of social well-being. Pointing out that rural life is no longer synonymous with farming, the authors explore variations among nonmetropolitan populations. They also trace the impact of major national trends—the nonmetropolitan growth spurt of the 1970s and its current reversal, for example, or changing fertility rates—on rural life and on the relationship between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan communities. By describing the special characteristics and needs of rural populations as well as the features they share with urban America, this book clearly demonstrates that a more accurate picture of nonmetropolitan life is essential to understanding the larger dynamics of our society. A Volume in the Russell Sage Foundation Census Series

Combining mastery of existing scholarship with a fresh approach to new material, Born in the Country continues to define the field of American rural history.

In response to concerns resulting from changes in metropolitan growth during the past decade, and the concomitant gain in population of nonmetropolitan areas, this study was conducted in an effort to understand the effects of such growth on the quality of rural life and the physical environment. Data analyzed dealt with safisfactions, perceptions, evaluations, behaviors, and environmental characteristics, as seen by rural residents in three national and one regional (northern Michigan) surveys conducted between 1971 and 1976. The studies, which included questionnaires, personal interviews, and telephone interviews, defined the population groups by age, race, income and educational levels, job status, and occupation, with the last three categories looked at separately for men and women. Results indicated a somewhat "mixed picture" of life in rural America. In most instances, a greater satisfaction than dissatisfaction was seen in rural areas than in urban areas, but rural residents taken as a whole were seen to be neither better nor worse off than urban Americans. Stemming from limitations of using available national data in characterizing life in rural America, six issues concerning research tasks were identified which should be addressed by policy makers and other groups and individuals concerned with the quality of rural life. (JD)

Where will people live and work in 21st Century America? Everyone has to live somewhere, but very few people will live in the old urban centres of the 19th and 20th century. The old urban centres burdened with so much obsolescence and enormous replacement cost for their basic utilities just don't have the ability to hold so many people even if the people wanted to live or work there. Increasing, at just 3% per year, the US population will be 556 million in the year 2022 and by 2047 over 1.166 billion! Just as technology created the old urban centres, new technology is now spawning the new urban centres in rural America and beyond. The sands of time have covered many large urban centres all over the world. They came to life, flourished and then expired when conditions changed. The many ghost towns in America along with the decay of many urban centres are also mute testimony to the transitory nature of man's accomplishments and to the powerful influence of climate change, wars, natural disasters and most significantly in the last century, new technology. Our new urban centres will not only be in rural America, but even in the now remote parts of Alaska, Canada, Australia, the Orient and most significantly, the Moon and Mars. With some understanding of how technology drives these changes, we can be better prepared to plan for the future and accept the changes.