When people say they live “rural”, what do you envision?

I always say I live in a semi-rural place. We do have a farm directly behind us, 45 mins to the nearest A&E hospital. There is a smaller, cottage type one, that's always narrowly avoiding closure.
Loads of tractors around, we once had a pig running around our road as it had gone on a Babe-style escape. Quite a few narrow, one-track roads. No deliveroo/ubereats.
Nearest traffic lights are about 10 miles away. That was something that blew my mind when we moved here, as I'd only just passed my driving test and moved from a small town.

But our village has a primary school, train station, doctors and 3 convenience shops within walking distance and there's proper pavements. There's no walkable route to the local secondary, so children living here and surrounding villages get a free school bus. It's also towards the coast. There are smaller villages nearby that are more rural, but still think they'd be in the semi-rural range.

For me, rural would be mostly farmland and 3 miles+ to the nearest shop/pub with no pavements. I don't think this would be the official classification though 😅

I think you might live near me

ETA not very near, obviously

I imagine them being near roads with no footpath. Intimidating Neighbours with shotgun licenses.

My extended family think I live rurally! I’m in a small town (with a hospital and secondary school…) only 20 minutes from a city! But for them rural starts anywhere outside of zone4!

For me rural is a farm a mile from the nearest neighbours up in the mountains with a 30 minute drive to the nearest shop.

For most people it’s somewhere in the middle I think!

I describe our place as semi-rural.

We are within the M25 but not on gas or mains drainage. Our road is single track with no lights or pavements. We get foxes, badgers and deer in the garden, and birds of prey circle overhead most days. A pair of bats visit at twilight. From my bedroom window I can see trees, ponies and sheep. It’s a two mile walk to the nearest shop. But I can see the M25 in the distance. And we are about two miles from a zone 6 station. It is a really odd mix.

We consider ourselves semi rural as we’re surrounded by farming land and lots of green however realistically we are 15 mins from the M25 and our local shopping centre is 10 mins away. My dad on the other hand is so rural that they have an actual shop come along in a van once a week selling necessities as their local supermarket is a 40 mins away drive away.

Before mobile phones I used to get panicky when we went on holiday to rural areas in Europe. I would sometimes wake up in the night and wonder what on earth I would do if my OH had a heart attack or something. I didn't drive, didn't speak the language and it would be miles to the nearest house. Thankfully these days we tend to go to places that are less remote and having a mobile phone does at least bring some peace of mind.

In this country I would probably have felt less isolated but it would still have been a long walk for help.

It astonishes me that there are people on MN who live remotely but don't drive and rely on a partner.

I still remember staying in the Lake District in a largish village but getting a taxi was very expensive as all the taxi drivers came out from the nearest large town.

Programmes that show shots of roads in places like the US and Australia where they just run for miles with no sign of civilisation really make me feel very twitchy.

I imagine in a rural county and not in a city. If someone lived in a market town where you'd drive through fields to get to the next one, I'd still think of that as rural. But I grew up in the countryside. I think if you've mostly lived in cities, you'd imagine 'remote' rather than 'rural'. To me, I think, rural is living in a community that is largely focussed around farming (or now, potentially tourism) and at least an hour to the nearest city.

No it isn't That's an image you've generated using an AI image generator.

Oh yes it is. It's deliberately a bit vague and arty to preserve my privacy. I'll happily send you a more detailed via PM one if you then apologise?

Some people thought rural meant the same as remote, but it doesn't.

True, family has a home in the French countryside. There are a few neighbours but it is surrounded by fields. Definitely rural.

For me it means a small town or village surrounded by countryside within a few minutes drive or say 10 minute walk from home.

no pavements and have to drive everywhere. My idea of hell 😆

I'm definitely rural but not isolated. It's a small village, fairly spread out. No shop, a pub on the outskirts and a small church. Surrounded by farms, I now know how noisy sheep can be.

Rural doesn't always mean isolated or remote.

I grew up in a hamlet, 25 houses, no shop or pub, and 6 miles to the nearest town. It’s a pain in the arse. I now live in a large town. I’ve just come back from my parents and where I live is quieter and has more wildlife with the added bonus of corner shops, supermarkets and cafes in walking distance. I often think about moving back to where they live but I don’t want to deal with septic tanks, slow internet and getting in the car for everything. (That said a friend of mine who live just on the edge of town has a septic tank)

The view from my window.

We tend to plan food shopping around other things, so we don't make a bespoke trip without having several things to do at the same time. It saves time and fuel and it's something you get used to thinking about - if I have a hairdresser or opticians appointment I'd always get the shopping at the same time. I tend to plan according to how low we are on milk - last 4 pinter.

It can mean different things to different people. Where I live is a tiny town with nothing for ages in either direction but small villages and hamlets and plenty of nothingness. Then the odd occasional small town. Its probably 100 miles to a city. Maybe remote is better to describe it. However the entire area including the town amd other local tiny towns have the healthcare issue of having to travel distances to hospital. So it's an incredible rural area but the tiny town has a coop, few shops, pubs, doctors, school and train station. Live 10 miles out and its the ruralist of rural.

(Before reading the thread):

On oil-fired heating
1-2 inches thick mud on the road after sugar beet harvest
Spectacular rural vehicle activity to watch like potato harvest or tree harvesters
Lots of not-built-on land nearby, probably low biodiversity crops but maybe some heath or woodland too
Amazing amount of insect and rodent life in the house
Probably windy... weather matters a lot to many travel decisions
Poor broadband/wifi, electricity network a bit iffy too
Pheasants in the garden seems ordinary
Can see many stars at night within 5 minute walk of house
Could be in a village or edge of a market town or a hamlet or house on a prairie like wheat field 1-4km from the nearest other residential property
Home occupants probably work in the city and drive 40min to 1 hour each way when they go into ofice lol
High % of old people among nearest residents
Many roads are single car width wide although roads have passing places

i like the standing naked on the porch theory!
I live in a large busy town which I love and the idea of living remotely/rurally also feels appealing briefly but I’d hate not being able to just walk from my front door to places and having to use the car for every little journey.

We live on "edge of rural village" - it takes about 30 seconds to drive from our house (open fields as far as you can see) to the other side of village and more fields. 1 pub, tiny village shop that is full up if there are more than about 5 people in there.

No it isn't That's an image you've generated using an AI image generator.

We looked at some houses in Suffolk a few years back that were half an hour to anywhere with supermarkets and spaced along the road with 5-10 minute car drives between them. I’m envisaging that.

I live in a hamlet about 1 mile outside a small market town and would describe myself as living “semi rurally”. But it’s all relative - friends visiting from London think we live in the depths of the countryside!

Where we live is still classed as a village, just. Twenty years ago it wasn't quite small but they've doubled the size by housebuilding and more happening. For us we have a village primary school, one pub, couple of farms and one small shop. It's a half an hour walk to our nearest town. We generally class ourselves as rural but in the West Midlands we probably are but compared to Scotland or areas of England we definitely aren't. I'd love to live somewhere that is rural but as we age I worry about lack of access to health facilities.

It's possible to have flat rural locations too. 🫣

Rolling hills , no neighbours, isolated , no amenities on the doorstep , that’s rural to me .