Opinion | Hey, College Graduates: Don’t Dismiss Rural America

When I talk to undergraduate students about their postgraduate plans, they typically tell me about something that involves moving to a large city. They are often sure of the city even before they know what they want to do there. When I ask why they are moving to San Francisco — or Denver, or Nashville or New York — the answer inevitably reveals a common assumption: Big cities are where highly educated people must go to succeed economically and socially.

The conventional wisdom among young college-educated people seems to be that living in a small country town would be a dead end for them — that rural America is a homogeneously conservative, isolated and unpleasant place. But these preconceptions are not only incorrect, they are also unduly limiting the opportunities of new college graduates.

I recently analyzed the data from a nationwide survey on community and society conducted by the American Enterprise Institute. The data show that rural areas are not ideologically monolithic; that college-educated Americans living in rural areas feel they are meaningfully connected to their communities; that these people are quite satisfied with their communities and the available professional opportunities, and are not looking to move away.

Let’s start with the idea that urban areas are overwhelmingly progressive and rural areas overwhelmingly conservative. This is simply wrong. It is true that ideological differences by urbanization level exist, but they are smaller than you might think. In large cities, 39 percent of the population identifies as liberal in some form, 23 percent as conservative and 38 percent as moderate. The inverse is true for rural areas, where 20 percent of residents are liberal, compared with 42 percent conservative and 37 percent moderate.

But while urban and rural areas lean in different directions, neither is an ideological monolith. Ideological diversity exists in rural areas; there is no reason that liberal students could not find like-minded people in those communities.

Consider next the stereotype of rural communities as isolating for college-educated people. As it turns out, 87 percent of both urban and rural Americans said that they felt in tune with those around them regularly — and the results were nearly identical when people were asked if they had a lot in common with those around them. In fact, 65 percent of educated rural residents said that they knew their neighbors well — compared with a notably lower 55 percent of those who reside in urban areas.

Highly educated rural residents also reported high levels of satisfaction with their communities. Eighty-six percent of both urban and rural residents rated their neighborhoods as excellent or good places to live. When asked about how things were going in their local communities, educated urbanites were less satisfied than were those in rural areas — at 68 percent compared with 76 percent.

Now take the question of professional success. It is undeniably the case that a handful of big cities are where income and job growth are most pronounced today. But there remains a need for skilled college graduates in rural areas, whether it’s in health services, technology or consulting work. Certainly, the data show that educated rural Americans are content with their job opportunities and optimistic about the future.

Twenty-one percent of educated urbanites reported that there were plenty of good jobs available in their communities, a figure that actually increased to 24 percent for rural areas. Ninety-five percent of college graduate urban residents said they anticipated that their finances would be better or the same in a year. That number dropped a few points to 90 percent in rural areas, but the figure shows that educated Americans in small-town America remain bullish economically.

Given all this, it should come as no surprise that educated rural residents were not interested in leaving their local communities. Only 30 percent of college-educated residents in rural areas said they wanted to leave, compared with 40 percent of those in urban centers. This finding runs directly against the prevailing wisdom about the desirability of life in rural America for the highly educated.

Nowadays, when students share their concerns about the high cost of living in urban centers and the challenges of finding satisfying careers, I suggest they broaden their thinking geographically and look beyond a select group of urban areas. There are trade-offs to living in rural areas just as there are in urban areas; I am not proposing that students ignore the differing socioeconomic and cultural opportunities. But rural America is not “flyover” country; it is a dynamic part of our nation, even — and perhaps especially — for the highly educated.

Understanding this reality could improve the lives of many college-educated people. At the very least, it should help rid them of some common anti-rural prejudices.

Samuel J. Abrams is professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

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