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"In Hume’s spirit, I will attempt to serve as an ambassador from my world of economics, and help in “finding topics of conversation fit for the entertainment of rational creatures.”"

"The first challenge of discussing US rural areas is to define them. I remember once reading a poetic definition that a rural area is a place where the shape of the land matters. But the US Census takes a different approach. It classifies each of the 3,141 counties in the United States as metropolitan, micropolitan, or neither. The “neither” category does not have an urban area of at least 10,000 people and is not in the commuting area of a nearby larger city. The “micropolitan” counties have an urban core of between 10,000 and 50,000 in population, and are not in the commuting area of a larger urban area. The most common way for research to look at “rural” America is to combine these these two categories of “nonmetropolitan” counties. Using this definition, rural areas are 97% of the land in the US, where 14% of the population lives. Rural areas also tend, with some exceptions, to be places where incomes are low, and where there have been many efforts over the decades to encourage economic development. Alexandra E. Hill, Sarah A. Low, and Keith Taylor explore the topic in “The Economics of Rural Development in the United States” (Annual Review of Resource Economics, 2026, pp. 11-39)."

"As one starting point, it’s important to recognize that the economy of rural America is not primarily agricultural, and has not been so for some time. Hill, Low, and Taylor write:"

"Today’s rural America contributes to the national economy through a range of industries. The USDA estimates that, with regard to jobs and earnings, 17% of nonmetro US counties are classified as farm-dependent, 25% are manufacturing, 10% are recreation, 4% are mining, 4% are the government sector, and the remaining 40% do not have a primary industry (USDA ERS 2025). While small family farms still constitute the majority of US farming operations (85%), they are becoming less prevalent, accounting for only 14% of farm sales (USDA NASS 2025). Among rural households engaged in production agriculture, reliance on nonfarm income and benefits, such as health insurance, has never been higher: In 2017, 82% of farm household income came from off-farm sources, and 56% of principal farm operators had a main job off the farm (Spell et al. 2022). Recognizing this, many agricultural economists now argue against the Goldschmidt Hypothesis, which suggested that improving the farm economy is necessary and sufficient for improving rural economies, and instead advocate for policies that more broadly stimulate prosperity, health, quality of life, and economic diversification in rural communities … Nonmetro US counties have experienced lower employment growth than metro counties over the last two decades (Dumont 2024, Sanders 2022). Multiple factors contribute to this, including falling population levels, fewer employer businesses and rising numbers of nonemployee businesses (Conroy et al. 2025), growth in high-skilled and declines in low-skilled employment opportunities (Autor 2019), and more …"

Key Topics & Focus Areas for conversableeconomist.com:

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