[pigscantfly]

I live in a rural area and grew up working a beef ranch in the Poconos, and all of these claims (less educated, lower income, more conservative, more religious) sound obviously true to me, but I looked up the data out of curiosity.

Here is the USDA Economic Research Service on rural vs. urban educational attainment and median income; rural areas indeed are less educated and lower income[1]. This Pew Research study shows that rural areas are more conservative than urban areas across a wide range of political issues[2]. Data on religion was slightly harder to find, but this Gallup poll shows rural areas in the US are more religious than urban areas[3]. If any of these results are surprising, I'd guess that you may not have much experience of urban areas as a comparison. To be clear, I still prefer living in a rural area, but I recognize that there are pros, cons, and individual differences.

1. https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/emp...

2. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/05/22/urban-s...

3. https://news.gallup.com/poll/7960/age-religiosity-rural-amer...