Rural Rebound
Rural Renaissance
Urban Expatriates
Booming Boondocks

Most rural areas in the United States are now growing at the fastest rate in more than 20 years. Rural population gains between 1990 and 2000 have been both extremely widespread and substantial. Fueled by an influx of migrants from urban areas and fewer people leaving, rural gains since 1990 are near record levels. They reflect a sharp reversal of the trend of the 1980s, when most rural (nonmetropolitan) areas lost population. This is only the second period or widespread nonmetropolitan growth in 80 years.

Nonmetropolitan areas - those without an urban center of 50,000 or more - gained 5.2 million additional residents (10.3 percent) between April 1990 and April 2000. In contrast, such areas grew by only 1.3 million during the 1980s. Almost 74 percent of the 2303 rural counties are now growing, compared to only 45 percent during the 1980s.

- Kenneth M. Jackson, Calvin L. Beale, "The Rural Rebound Recent Nonmetropolitan Demographic Trends in the United States.