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Abstract

Judging by statistics from the past half-century, rural America will continue to grow faster than urban America. The spread of large cities, the creation of new ones, the addition of 30 million more senior citizens, and the diffusion of immigrants into rural areas are powerful forces contributing to rural growth. Rural areas are competitive in a broad range of industries, eventually including significant elements of today’s high wage, urban-oriented growth industries. Some rural places will be left behind, but past policy experience shows that alleviating conditions in distressed rural areas is well within the nation’s capacity. The official statistical system that divides the nation into metropolitan and rural areas misdirects policy discussions by hiding rural growth and obscuring the intertwined nature of urban and rural activities. Four-fifths of rural growth has occurred in areas reclassified as metropolitan, and two-fifths of all farmers farm in metropolitan America.

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Competitive Advantages of Rural America in the Next Century

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