Perhaps there’s something to the rural way of life.
In the last month, we’ve seen plenty of attacks by the cultural elite on the hicks in the sticks. They’re blaming our backwoods ways for Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump in the presidential election.
The U.S. Census released an interesting counterpoint to that this week. Based on its American Community Survey’s 2015 data release, things are pretty good for the one in five Americans living in the country.
Just to get the labels out of the way, rural is considered not urban, and urban is roughly considered any place with more than 2,500 people. There’s a subdivide for urbanized areas of 50,000 or more people and urban clusters between 2,5000 and 50,000 people.
“Rural areas cover 97 percent of the nation’s land area but contain 19.3 percent of the population (about 60 million people),” Census Bureau Director John H. Thompson said in a press release. “By combining five years of survey responses, the American Community Survey provides unequaled insight into the state of every community, whether large or small, urban or rural.”
They found some fascinating differences between the urban and rural areas:
• You’re 11 percentage points more likely to own your own home in a rural area (81.1 percent) than an urban area (59.8 percent).
• You’re less likely to live in poverty (11.7 percent) in a rural area than an urban one (14.0 percent).
• Your monthly housing costs are nearly $300 lower in rural areas, $1,271 vs. $1,561.
• You’re more likely to own your house without any mortgage or loan, at 44.0 percent vs. 32.3 in urban areas.
• You’re 10.1 percentage points more likely to be married (61.9 percent vs. 50.8) and less like to live alone (11.6 percent vs. 14.3 percent).
• You’re more likely to have insurance (13.6 percent uninsured in rural vs. 15.3 in urban).
• Children are more likely to live in a married-couple house (76.3 percent rural vs. 67.4 percent urban).
• Completely rural counties aren’t just filled with farmers. Census data shows 22.3 percent working in education, health care or social assistance, followed by 12.1 percent in manufacturing, 10.9 percent in retail trade and just 9.6 percent in agriculture.
The news isn’t all sunshine and roses, unfortunately. Some of the statistics do live up to the stereotypes:
• You’re less likely to have a bachelor’s degree or higher (19.5 percent vs. 29.0 percent).
• Your house is likely worth nearly $39,000 less in a rural area, and your median household income is $1,910 lower.
• You’re less likely to have Internet access at home, at 23.8 percent in rural vs. 17.3 percent in urban.
The rural population has remained relatively steady since 1920, but it makes up a smaller percentage of the total U.S. population than it ever has before as the urban areas swell.
These are the kinds of numbers we need to remind our children before they head off to a far-flung city. Rural life really does have its advantages.
[Source: U.S. Census Bureau]
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