Rural Sociology - Definition of "rural"

Definition of "rural"

Sociologists define "rural" as those areas which are not urban in nature. The line between urban and rural is quite arbitrary, although rural sociologists in America often use the U.S. Census Bureau's definition of rural as being an area of fewer than 1000 people per square mile. The 2000 Census reported that rural America was home to nearly 21% of the U.S. population (59,274,000 people). Recent research has examined the "rural" and the "urban" as linked parts of a dialectical discourse.

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