ABSTRACT
Most people in the developing regions are either cultivators, farm laborers, or relatively small-scale producers of services or manufactured goods in the countryside. In 1970, 75 percent of the population of low-and middle-income countries lived in rural areas; by 1999, this share had fallen somewhat to 61 percent. In the low-income countries, the share of the rural population in 1999 was still 74 percent (UNDP: 2001:157; World Bank 1994:222-223, Table 31). In 1993 there were over 2.2 billion people involved in agriculture as producers, while another 800 million lived in rural areas. As we know, there is a strong inverse relationship between a nation’s level of per capita income and the size of the rural population: 78 percent of the population in nations with per capita income below US$400 per year were located in the rural sector, whereas in the “uppermiddle income countries” with per capita income above $1,601 per year, the rural population accounted for only 35 percent of the total population.
