The Divides Within, and Between, Urban and Rural America

Note: This is the first in a series of posts that will explore the myths and realities of America’s urban-rural divide. Here, we provide an overview of the series and of the data and methodology used. Future posts will cover population growth, jobs, wages, college graduates, and knowledge workers across America’s urban and rural communities.

The notion of a deep and enduring divide between thriving, affluent, progressive urban areas and declining, impoverished, conservative rural areas has become a central trope—if not the central trope—in American culture today. In May 2017, the Wall Street Journal proclaimed, “Rural America Is the New Inner City.” And ever since Donald Trump was elected president, the narrative of urban revitalization and rural decline has only gained steam.