As a non-American, I’m very confused by this. If it’s a town, it’s not rural by definition. Because, you-know, it’s urban.

Also, could we get a definition of town vs small town. Do you not have the concept of a village? (Village in the UK would be a settlement with a population of a couple of thousand, with usually a pub, local shop, maybe a post office and primary school if you’re lucky).

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    9 days ago

    so by way of examples, going to some extremes…

    Kent County, Texas is one of the most rural counties in the US. with Jayton hosting its county court house. As of the 2020 census, the entire county has less than one thousand people. The terms small town/town are somewhat nebulous, But usually in really rural places it’s someplace with a few shops and maybe a neighborhood and school and stuff.

    This is a sat photo of Jayton, compliments of google maps:

    Jayton has about 500 people.

    Note, that the mile is about 1.25 miles/ 2 km’s north to south and about the same in east west. (at least, as far the structures/housing goes.) to get an idea of what it looks like there, here’s the streetview in front of the court house.

    zooming out to kent county, there’s like 5 towns in that entire square, note the distance marker down at the bottom being about 8 km:

    now, compare that to new york city:

    Note, the distance marker at the bottom being about 3 km.

    zooming in to roughly the same scale as the photo on jayton… randomly…

    and here’s a few courthouses in brooklyn…

    and the king’s county courthouse on streetview