UMass. Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning
Six definitions of rural were evaluated, ranging from those based on population or population and area, to those where a number of factors were included. The indicator that appears to best combine simplicity and precision is population density per square mile, where densities less than 500 persons per square mile are considered to be rural. By this measure, 190 of the 351 towns in Massachusetts are rural, 940,000 or 16 percent of Massachusetts residents live in them, and their area is 65 percent of the Commonwealth.
A total of 67 towns are considered rural by all six classifications. These are primarily west of the Connecticut River, but they also occur in eastern Franklin County, the Quabbin area, outer Cape Cod, and the Islands.
Six factors were selected for comparisons of rural-urban differences. They are land use, demography, income and wealth, eployment and economic activity, housing and form of government. A total of 21 variables were used to measure these factors, most from the 1990 Census.
The findings of the study are that in many important ways rural Massachusetts is quite similar to urban Massachusetts. The area of land in agriculture is surprisingly similar in typical rural and suburban communities. Sex ratios are generally similar. Minority levels are very low in most Massachusetts communities, both rural and urban, with the exception of large urban cities. The range of poverty rates is also similar among rural and urban cities and towns, again with the exception of a few primary urban municipalities that have particularly high poverty rates. Overall, workers from urban and rural areas have similar distributions among industries and occupations, except in some occupations and industries that employ a small proportion of the labor force (such as fishing and farming). The likelihood of a householder moving and their typical length of stay in one house is more similar than different between rural and urban communities. And even in most urban municipalities, the town meeting is the dominant form of local government.
Nevertheless, rural areas in Massachusetts are different than urban areas in important ways. Not surprisingly, they generally have considerably more forest land and less developed land, particularly in industry and commerce. They have higher proportions of children and child-rearing age families. They have more people leaving the community daily for work and fewer people entering it. They rely much less on public sewerage and water systems. They have higher rates of home ownership. Lower-income rental households in rural communities tend to use more of their income for rent than in urban areas. Sometimes the greatest difference is not between the larger cities and rural communities, but between both of these kinds of communities and suburban towns, which have higher education levels and are generally wealthier.
The report contains 65 tables and 35 figures, including several maps. Towns that are unusual for one reason or another are identified, and may be found through an extensive index. An appendix contains a list of all 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts, and their category according to each of the six classifications.
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UMass. Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning
Last updated June 11, 1995
by Christopher J. Campbell
© Copyright 1995 Center for Rural Massachusetts
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