Rural area

A rural area or countryside is a place found far away from towns and cities. These areas usually have few people living close together and often include land used for farming or forestry. Because they are not very crowded, rural places can have beautiful open spaces and a calm way of life.

Life in rural areas is closely tied to the land. Many jobs there come from agriculture, cutting trees, or finding natural resources. These jobs can change a lot, especially when there is extreme weather like long dry periods called droughts. Because of this, many younger people move to cities to find more opportunities.

Some rural areas have found ways to grow by bringing in new services like electricity and the internet. Today, there is a focus on making sure these places can develop in healthy ways that don’t hurt the environment.

Regional definitions

North America

Canada

In Canada, a rural area is a place where more than half of the people live in small communities with fewer than 150 people per square kilometre. Canada has special ways to group areas for counting people.

Statistics Canada says a rural area has fewer than 1,000 people and a low number of people living close together.

United States

South America

Brazil

In Brazil, rural areas are places outside towns and city streets. Some areas far from big cities are also rural. In some parts of Brazil, almost the whole state is rural except for the capital city.

Europe

France

15% of people in France live in rural areas, which cover most of the country. The government started plans in 2019 to help these areas, including projects for energy. There is also a program to make town centers more attractive.

Germany

Germany has many areas that are not cities, used mainly for farming. About 10% of people work in farming, forests, or fishing. Rural areas are seen as just as important as cities.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, rural areas are places where more than a quarter of the people live in small settlements or market towns. There are rules to protect these countryside areas.

Asia

China

India

In India, rural areas are usually small villages where people work in farming, fishing, or making things by hand. There are said to be up to 500,000 villages in India. Different groups have different ways to decide what counts as rural, but often it includes places with fewer than 15,000 people.

Japan

In Japan, rural areas are called "Inaka," meaning the countryside or a village.

Pakistan

Main article: Pakistani village life

About 64% of people in Pakistan live in rural areas. Many of these areas are close to cities. People in rural Pakistan often live in houses made of bricks or mud, and many work with animals.

Oceania

New Zealand

In New Zealand, areas are sorted based on how rural they are. Traffic rules have a special definition for rural areas, using a certain speed limit.

Economics

Rural areas are places far from big cities where fewer people live. These areas often focus on farming and caring for forests. Because there is less development, life in rural areas can be different from life in a city.

Rural health

Rural areas can have special health challenges because they are far from big cities and have fewer people. There may be fewer hospitals and doctors, so it can be harder for people to get medical help quickly. This can affect the health and well-being of people living in these areas.

Academic study

Different areas of study look at rural areas because they have special qualities.

Rural planning is a part of studying cities and places. It works with fields like urban planning, regional planning, and urbanism. These fields can have different names depending on where you are. Sometimes they are used to mean the same thing.