Rural Growth Is Real; But It Looks Different

By Stacy Davis, Sumner County Economic Development When we talk about growth in rural America, I think we sometimes make the mistake of believing there are only two possibilities: a community is booming, or it is dying. I don’t believe either one tells the whole story. The current rural climate is complicated. There are communities gaining people and communities losing them. There are businesses expanding while others struggle to find workers. There are new families choosing small towns while longtime residents are getting older. There are communities landing multimillion-dollar projects while still trying to figure out how to build enough housing, provide childcare or keep a grocery store open. That is rural America in 2026. The first thing we need to do is be honest about where we are. According to the USDA Economic Research Service, the population of nonmetropolitan America reached approximately 46.2 million people in 2024.

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