Rural towns are often the most overlooked parts of the American landscape, but they could soon become an increasingly important part of American life, according to a new report from a team of researchers at Harvard University.
The report, published in the Journal of Urban Planning, found that cities could become increasingly important to people living in rural areas over the next decade.
“For many people, rural living will become more important in the future, especially if they live in states where agriculture is declining and the economic value of the land is declining,” said the study’s lead author, Andrew W. Miller, a doctoral candidate in urban planning and public policy at Harvard.
According to the report, rural towns will become a growing number of Americans in the years to come, and that rural communities are likely to have a major impact on the country’s future.
While rural populations have historically been the backbone of American economies, the study found that the number of rural households has grown by more than three times over the past century.
This shift in demographics will be especially important as the number and share of people living outside of cities increases over the coming decades.
As cities increasingly expand and become more diverse, the number in rural communities is projected to increase, the researchers say.
Rural towns may be less well-known to the public, but this is a rapidly growing segment of the population.
In the coming decade, more than 6.7 million people will live in rural towns and 1.3 million in cities, the report found.
But rural communities could also become a key part of America’s future as cities grow larger, the authors said.
To better understand the impact of urbanization on rural communities, the Harvard team surveyed more than 1,000 rural residents.
The data also included census tracts, census tracts that were in a different county, and census tracts where no census tract data was available.
In order to assess rural populations, the team used a population density metric that is used by researchers to estimate the extent to which rural communities comprise a percentage of the total population.
Using data from the 2010 U.S. Census, the group found that rural population density ranged from about 0.1 percent in the South to about 15 percent in metropolitan areas, the same density as the Midwest.
When urban populations expanded, the rate of growth of rural communities in metropolitan regions decreased, the analysis found.
The growth rate of rural population in cities increased between 1980 and 2000, but by 2011, urban population density was projected to reach a peak of about 4.5 percent in 2020.
The trend will continue, the data found.
By 2060, the urban population in the United States will likely exceed that of rural populations by more then a third, the research team wrote.
Despite the increasing population density of urban areas, rural communities will continue to experience challenges, the survey found.
Many rural residents live in poverty, and nearly 60 percent of rural residents in the study said they are likely experiencing housing instability.