Rural area

Rural areas have unique economic and social dynamics due to their relationship with land-based industry such as agriculture, forestry, and resource extraction.

Rural economics can be subject to boom and bust cycles and vulnerable to extreme weather or natural disasters, such as droughts.

These dynamics alongside larger economic forces encouraging urbanization have led to significant demographic declines, called rural flight, where economic incentives encourage younger populations to go to cities for education and access to jobs, leaving older, less educated and less wealthy populations in the rural areas.

This cycle of poverty contributes to why three quarters of the global impoverished live in rural areas according to the Food and Agricultural Organization.

Some communities have successfully encouraged economic development in rural areas, with policies such as increased access to electricity or internet.

However, recent approaches more focused on sustainable development take into account economic diversification in these communities.

Rural areas are any place outside a municipality's urban development (buildings, streets) and it is carried by informal usage.

[4] In 2018, the government had launched the "Action Cœur de Ville" program to revitalize town centers across the country.

As one of the largest agricultural producers in the European Union, more than half of Germany's territory which is almost 19 million hectares,[6] is used for farming, and located in the rural areas.

Almost 10% of people in Germany have jobs related to the agricultural, forest and fisheries sectors; approximately a fifth of them are employed in the primary production.

In rural areas, agriculture is the chief source of livelihood along with fishing,[10] cottage industries, pottery etc.

[11] In Japan, rural areas are referred to as "Inaka" which translates literally to "the countryside" or "one's native village".

The remote rural villagers of Pakistan commonly live in houses made of bricks, clay or mud.

The majority of rural Pakistani inhabitants livelihoods is based upon the rearing of livestock, which also comprises a significant part of Pakistan's gross domestic product.

Rural development has traditionally centered on the exploitation of land-intensive natural resources such as agriculture and forestry.

Increasingly rural tourism, niche manufacturers, and recreation have replaced resource extraction and agriculture as dominant economic drivers.

Rural communities are suffering from colossal market failures as the national grids fall short of their demand for electricity.

[29] Electrification typically begins in cities and towns and gradually extends to rural areas, however, this process often runs into obstacles in developing nations.

Expanding the national grid is expensive and countries consistently lack the capital to grow their current infrastructure.

If countries are able to overcome these obstacles and reach nationwide electrification, rural communities will be able to reap considerable amounts of economic and social development.

People can also move into town to seek higher wages, educational access and other urban amenities; examples of pull factors.

But the concept (urban hierarchy) can be applied more generally to many services and is explained by central place theory.

The concept of rural health incorporates many fields, including wilderness medicine, geography, midwifery, nursing, sociology, economics, and telehealth or telemedicine.

[44][46][47] People living in rural areas also tend to have less education, lower socioeconomic status, and higher rates of alcohol and smoking when compared to their urban counterparts.

[48] Additionally, the rate of poverty is higher in rural populations globally, contributing to health disparities due to an inability to access healthy foods, healthcare, and housing.

Specific interventions and solutions will depend entirely on the needs of each region in each country, but generally speaking, regional planning at the macro level will seek to:[61] 1800s: Martineau · Tocqueville · Marx · Spencer · Le Bon · Ward · Pareto · Tönnies · Veblen · Simmel · Durkheim · Addams · Mead · Weber · Du Bois · Mannheim · Elias Rural sociology is a field of sociology traditionally associated with the study of social structure and conflict in rural areas.

Barossa Valley in South Australia , noted for its vineyards
Rice terraces in Kami , Hyōgo Prefecture in Japan
A rural landscape in Lappeenranta , South Karelia in Finland
Westminster , Vermont
A rural country road in Marshall County , Indiana
A rural landscape near Mount Shasta in California
A rural area in Northern France
Rural Yorkshire Dales in England
Fish farmer at peasant market in Danshan, Sichuan in September 2005
A rural village in Rajasthan , India
Amra Kalan village in Kharian , Pakistan
A rural development academy in Bogra , Bangladesh. Many government and non-governmental agencies invest in capacity building and opportunities for rural communities to gain greater access to economic opportunities.
This graph shows the world rural electrification rate along with the electrification growth rate 1990–2016 and synthesizes data from the World Bank. [ 30 ]
Population age comparison between rural Pocahontas County, Iowa , and urban Johnson County, Iowa , illustrating the flight of young female adults (red) to urban centers in Iowa [ 31 ]
Gustave Courbet depicted nineteenth century rural poverty in this painting.
Many parts of rural Africa, such as this community in Mozambique, experience rural poverty. This woman was given access to a bicycle through a rural development program through a Bicycle poverty reduction program. Access to affordable transportation has been a key part of gaining access to greater economic mobility in many parts of the world. For example, distributing bicycles was one of the key strategies used by China to reduce rural poverty in the 20th century. [ 35 ]
Village elders participate in a training for rural health care workers in Ethiopia .
Boy plowing with a tractor at sunset in Don Det, Laos.
Boy plowing with a tractor at sunset in Don Det , Laos