Description
| - Rural areas are large and isolated areas of an open country (in reference to open fields and not forests, etc.), often with low population density. The terms "countryside" and "rural areas" are not synonyms: a "countryside" refers to rural areas that are open. A forest, wetlands, etc. with a low population density is not a countryside.
About 91 percent of the rural population now earn salaried incomes, often in urban areas. The 10 percent who still produce resources generate 20 percent of the world’s coal, copper, and oil; 10 percent of its wheat, 20 percent of its meat, and 50 percent of its corn. The efficiency of these farms is due in large part to the commercialization of the farming industry, and not single family operations.
Today, 75 percent of the United States' inhabitants live in suburban and urban areas, but cities occupy only 2 percent of the country. Rural areas occupy the remaining 98 percent.
The U.S. Census Bureau, the USDA's Economic Research Service, and the Office...
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