Definitions of Rural Area
Rural definitions are numerous, to the point where some have said “there are almost as many definitions of rural as there are researchers”. Despite increasing attempts to delineate rural from urban, no internationally recognized efforts have emerged. It would appear that several countries, including Canada, the United-States, the United Kingdom,India,Zambia,South Africa,Bangladesh,Pakistan,Afghanistan,Canada,Chile,Argentina, Sri Lanka, Myanmar,China,Russia,Scotland,Ireland,Greenland,Iceland,Mongolia,Oman,Saudi Arabia, Abudhabi, Spain, Australia, and New Zealand have developed their own formulas to defining ‘rural’. Variations of this definition, even within the same country, have been somewhat problematic. Different formulas provide different numbers. For instance, depending on which definition is applied, Canada’s rural population varies from 22 to 38 percent. While in the United-States, it varies from 17 to 63 percent.
Most rural definitions have been based on geographical concepts, also referred to as “technical definitions”. These have included measures such as population size, population density, and distance from an urban centre, settlement patterns, labor market influences, and postal codes. Based on these concepts, there would appear to be six definitions of rural in Canada, nine in the United-States, two in the United-Kingdom, three in Australia and one in New Zealand. Further adding to the complexity of studying rural health is that certain areas share a common denomination by definition, but are very different places to live in.
Read more about this topic: Rural Health
Famous quotes containing the words definitions of, definitions, rural and/or area:
“What I do not like about our definitions of genius is that there is in them nothing of the day of judgment, nothing of resounding through eternity and nothing of the footsteps of the Almighty.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“The loosening, for some people, of rigid role definitions for men and women has shown that dads can be great at calming babies—if they take the time and make the effort to learn how. It’s that time and effort that not only teaches the dad how to calm the babies, but also turns him into a parent, just as the time and effort the mother puts into the babies turns her into a parent.”
—Pamela Patrick Novotny (20th century)
“Once wealth and beauty are gone, there is always rural life.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Now for civil service reform. Legislation must be prepared and executive rules and maxims. We must limit and narrow the area of patronage. We must diminish the evils of office-seeking. We must stop interference of federal officers with elections. We must be relieved of congressional dictation as to appointments.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)