ABSTRACT
Since 1950, the rural population of the United States has been defined to include that part of the population that lives in the open country or in communities or villages with fewer than 2,500 inhabitants. Although the absolute number of people living in areas so defined has remained relatively constant at about 55 million for two decades, that number as a percent of total U.S. population has dropped from 36.0 percent in 1950 to 26.5 percent in 1970. The number of rural places (small cities, municipalities, villages, etc.), however, has remained remarkably stable over the past thirty years. There are slightly more than 4,100 rural places having 1,000 to 2,500 population and just under 10,000 places having permanent populations of less than 1,000 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1971). 1
