APA-Small Town and Rural Planning Division

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"When [rural sociologist Shoshanah] Inwood drives through rural America, she sees something most people miss. Where others might see emptying towns or aging populations, the Ohio State University rural sociologist sees a fundamental transformation rewriting the very definition of what it means to be rural in America.

"Rural sociologists love to say, 'If you've been to one rural community, you've been to one rural community,'" Inwood said.

It's a simple statement capturing a complex truth: The traditional narrative of a uniformly shrinking rural America no longer holds. Instead, there are multiple rural Americas, each following vastly different trajectories, each facing unique challenges and opportunities."

Rural America's Population Decline Is Reversing COVID-19, remote work and demographic shifts ended decades of population decline in rural America.