Overview
Nearly 50 million Americans live in nonmetropolitan (nonmetro)
areas, as currently defined. The nonmetro classification
covers approximately 2,000 counties outside the primary
daily commuting range of urbanized areas with 50,000 or
more people, and is widely used to define "rural" for
research and policymaking. Nonmetro areas contain 17 percent
of the U.S. population but extend across 80 percent of
the land area. Relatively slow growth characterized nonmetro
America during 2000-05. Population increased by just over
1 million, a 2.2-percent increase compared with 5.3 percent
for the Nation. Several demographic trends are reshaping
economic and social conditions across nonmetro counties.
These trends serve both as key indicators of rural economic
health and as generators of future growth and economic
expansion.
Highlights
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