ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the impacts of rapid growth on human well-being. It provides an overview of research on social and personal well-being in rapid growth communities. The chapter also provides an interpretation of available boomtown statistics and a brief discussion of the measurement of "well-being." It explores the basic background information available on the characteristics of the new people who move into rapid growth communities. The chapter reviews researchers' findings and propositions about the impacts of rapid growth on identifiable subgroups within local communities. The significance of the distinction between individual data and aggregated data can be stated quite directly. Persons in the local agricultural sector, by contrast, tend not to be affected in a positive way by rapid growth. The young people of growth communities, however, provide another illustration of the importance of including more than just economic considerations in our thinking.
