The real (surprisingly comforting) reason rural America is doomed to decline
From the Washington Post (and it is comforting in a way)
The real (surprisingly comforting) reason rural America is doomed to decline
According to the United States’ original 1950 urban classifications, rural America is crushing it. It’s home to about as many people as urban America, and it’s growing faster. So why do headlines and statistics paint rural areas as perpetually in decline?
Because the contest between rural and urban America is rigged. Official definitions are regularly updated in such a way that rural counties are continually losing their most successful places to urbanization. When a rural county grows, it transmutes into an urban one.
In a way, rural areas serve as urban America’s farm team: All their most promising prospects get called up to the big leagues, leaving the low-density margins populated by an ever-shrinking pool of those who couldn’t qualify.
Remainder of article with lots of charts at:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/the-real-surprisingly-comforting-reason-rural-america-is-doomed-to-decline/ar-AABQRfs?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=spartandhp
