Challenges in the Analysis of Rural Populations in the United States

Abstract

Rural Demography in the United States is faced with a number of unique challenges. In this chapter we summarize some of the most important of these. We first concentrate on the issues related to the definition of what is rural both conceptually and empirically arguing that many of the challenges involve issues related to what “rural” is and where it is; that is, how its geography is linked to its populations. We then examine the unique problems created by the small population sizes in rural areas using four areas of analysis as examples of the challenges related to defining rurality and spatially locating rural areas. The four areas examined represent critical areas of analysis in both the measurement of demographic change in rural areas and in two areas where rurality has come to form a major differentiator of conditions and outcomes. We first examine the analysis of rates of fertility, mortality, and migration in sparsely settled areas. These basic demographic processes, essential to the understanding of demographic change in any area, pose unique problems for their analysis in rural settings. Similarly, the second example, the analysis of the estimation and projection of demographic processes, involves analysis and methods that require unique approaches in their projection in rural areas. Analysis in the third example area, the examination of the prevalence and incidence of diseases and disorders in rural areas, has faced similarly challenging issues related to obtaining sufficient data to delineate areas with uniquely high and low disease prevalence and incidence. Finally, large-scale environmental and other developments in rural areas often create problems that would not occur in more urban settings where resources to handle such developments are more developed. The analysis involved in establishing the population-related impacts of large-scale environmental and industrial projects in rural areas is of critical importance, if they are to be adequately mitigated. In the final part of this chapter we discuss the potential created by recently developed techniques to both operationalize and integrate the key dimensions of rurality and to link these dimensions with given pieces of geography. We believe that such techniques will help to ensure the homogeneity of areas being compared and help identify the dimensions of rurality that create demographic differences.