Forty percent (40%) of U.S. adults say the countryside is their ideal place to live, handily beating out cities (~18%), suburbs (19%), and small towns (17%). Respondents' preferences correlate strongly with both current living place and childhood living place.

Data Source: CivicScience InsightStore
Visualization: Infogram

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Posted by CivicScienceInsights

34 comments

  1. So, those in an urban setting want to live in an urban setting. THose in suburbia think suburbia is ideal, and those in rural parts think that rural is best.

    OK, got it.

  2. People like the fantasy of living in the countryside, but not actually living there. Case in point: how few people with the means to live wherever they want choose to live in the countryside

  3. It’d be helpful to also show what percentage of the general pop lives in cities, suburbs, and rural areas.

    It’s very scary how many Americans fantasize about living in the country away from their fellow countrymen. This nation also can’t afford to continue subsidizing the rural lifestyle as it is.

  4. 40% of gen pop likes the IDEA of rural living

    dollar general is your grocery store. shit fuckin sucks out there.

  5. I’m grouping it by city, suburb or rural/country side for simplicity. A little surprised that even then rural/country wins it but I suppose if I could maintain my current income then I would prefer that as well.

  6. Looks like those people living in the country really love living in the country lol

  7. Pretty interesting considering cities are the most population dense locations in the country

    I would assume this is driven by the proportion of people living Rural that aren’t interest in city living , whereas there is prob higher portion of people who city live but like the idea of more space that rural/suburb offers

    I have done both. completely depends on speed of lifestyle , what you want at your disposal to occupy your time and money, and ofc affordability

  8. While not american, I know of several friends and family who thought country living was the best.

    some managed to acclimatize, but a lot moved back because they didn’t like commuting or the solace of the country, compared to the city

  9. The first half of this data strikes me as one of those “is water actually wet” studies. The kind we do to avoid the pitfalls of assuming something is obvious, even when you know the likely outcome (in this case, “people tend to go live where they’d like to live.”)

    The second half strikes me as more interesting. Growing up in an urban environment doesn’t seem to predict any outcome: a full third of people who grew up in cities would prefer a rural environment. By contrast, growing up in a rural environment produces a strong preference for it, with a full two thirds wanting to stay rural, and 85% wanting nothing bigger than a small town.

    I’d be really curious to understand why a rural environment seems to have so much stronger an influence on childhood experience. (Or if it’s just a quirk of the distribution of respondents: Did a lot more urban folks answer than rural?)

  10. I’d love to see data like this over time. How has the perception of Urban/Rural living shifted over the decades? Did the increase in violent crime of the 70’s/80’s push an increase in the appeal of rural life, or was it consistently the preference?

    Also I find it funny that suburb kids are the least interested in rural living, which as a suburb kid I can confirm, it’s great for camping trips but seems boring as hell to live in.

  11. This totally depends on how much money you make. NYC is amazing if you are rich, but it’s a struggle if you aren’t.

  13. IMHO, every person should be “required” to spend 5-10 years in an urban, suburban, and rural place each at least once. I bet we would understand each other politically a lot better if we had to be in each other’s shoes for a good amount of time.

  14. I live in an old neighborhood in my city that has straight up suburban vibes—yards, trees, a tennis club down the street, lots of kids riding bikes. And yet I’m a 10 minute drive to the center of the city. I love it so much. I have the best of everything

  15. I’ve lived in every one of these, they all have positives and negatives but those will vary by person. I’m guessing a lot of those urban people that dream of living in a small town/rural area would get bored out of their minds.

    I went

    House in small town -> rural -> house in small town -> house in a different small town -> house in a medium sized town -> suburban neighborhood -> (moved to another country) dowtown city apartment -> suburban neighborhood

  17. Interesting data. My personal anecdote: I’ve lived in all 3 rural, suburb and urban. Life is so much easier and more interesting in a city. You couldn’t drag me back to the boondocks. I will never again live anywhere I can’t walk to dozens of amenities like shopping, movie theater, bookstore, café, library, restaurant, gym, doctors, dentist, car mechanic.

  19. For some reason, reddit experts conclusions are the complete opposite of the data

  20. Most Americans are not thinking of counties that are designated as rural areas when they say countryside.

    I think most are probably accurate in what they want, they just aren’t using the official definitions for it.

  21. This data makes me think that once wfh becomes the norm, a lot of Americans are gonna move to countryside seeing lack of local jobs in rural areas becomes less of a factor

  22. So as children they could live in towns but as adults towns do not exist anymore? Or adults who live in towns were exclude from the poll?

  23. Don’t overlook zoning laws, building codes, access to utilities, and township boards themselves as barriers to rural life. People like the idea of it until they realize the deck is totally stacked against people moving away from urban/suburban areas back into the country.

  24. Seems like the poll missed the choice of city neighborhood apartment/condo. That’s probably at least third of the population in many cities.

  25. “Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside.”

  26. Having lived in rural, urban, and suburban, I fully prefer suburban. Rural isn’t bad, but if you have an accident, the response time for first responders is bad.

  27. I lived in 5 different cities until I was 26. Granted, in both places where I lived, the population density in general is so high, you’re not really too far away from stuff.

  28. Haha, based on the responses, Reddit is having a really hard time digesting these numbers.

    People generally do not like cities.

  29. Is this self reported living area or is it using zip code info to determine it? People routinely misreport whether or not they live in urban/suburban/rural areas.

  30. I think that if cost of living were not a factor, the scales would be vastly different.

  31. I wonder how this data corresponds to the studies like the one City Nerd talked about where there’s a lot of people that talk about the concept of rural cosplay some people seem to enjoy.

  32. When I wasn’t in some major city I was in the burbs. I felt literally stuck there until my kids weren’t kids anymore.
    Last year (being 50+ years old) I got sick of it, sold almost everything and now I see ALL the stars at night. Never going back.

  33. Oof, Reddit doesn’t like this one. Equal comments and upvotes. Funny, when a poll we don’t like shows up we come up with all sorts of reasons why it’s not representative, and the reverse is rarely true.

  34. What’s funny to me about this is if companies just let people actually work from home, rural communities could thrive.

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