Rural communities became the place to be in the past few years, boosting demand for areas once on the decline.
The U.S. countryside gained on average 430,000 residents between 2021 and 2024, according to a report published Wednesday by the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies. Harvard compared population changes on data from the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Agriculture. Both domestic migration and immigration contributed to the change. The trend reversed a population decline for rural communities seen in the past.
Cities seem to be at the core of this change, said Brad Case, chief residential economist at Homes.com.
"This is not really a story about people moving to rural areas: It’s a story about metropolitan areas expanding their boundaries," Case said. "That kind of growth in certain metro areas is likely to continue. We’ve seen strong growth in new construction of single-family housing — both for owners and for renters — in the outer parts of metro areas."
Part of the growth came during the pandemic years, when many people chose or were required to work remotely. Rural communities next to metropolitan areas gained 800,000 residents on average — think of the Austin-San Antonio corridor — compared to those farther out, which only grew by 150,000 residents on average during the past few years.
The Census Bureau and USDA distinguish areas by population and the number of homes. Urban areas must have at least 2,000 residences in a designated metropolitan area or 5,000 people. Anything short of that is considered rural.