What does “rural” mean to you?

[HowDairy]

We see it very often on MN - “I live rurally”.
So what do you consider is rural?
Just how far out of town is proper rural living?

To me, it means that you have to drive for the essentials - milk, bread etc.
But then, “ walkable” means different things to each and every one of us, dependent on ability.
So, answering my own question, it’s basically a how long is a piece of string scenario 🤔

Has that affected your choice of location as an adult @Sharpkat ?

We have no mains gas, water or sewage, no phone line or broadband. No neighbour whose property we can see.
Yet, we are 2.5 miles from the motorway.

I don't think you live rurally if you live in a village, rural is in the countryside. No streetlights, no pavements.

No path nearby and fields around- saying that when we were out in the middle of nowhere the nearest house was two fields away. We have fields behind us but have a house on either side and one across the road (fields either side of them though)

Bingo!

I reckon if you stand in a low hill, can’t see a neighbour and at least 20 minutes to an A road.

You nearly made my cut

@middleagedandinarage

I don't think you live rurally if you live in a village, rural is in the countryside. No streetlights, no pavements

That is factually incorrect. Have a look at the link on page 1.

I would never say I live rurally, but based on this thread maybe some people would?

My closest source for groceries is a 50 minute walk away each way, and it's far from full service. My closest full service supermarket is about an hour and 50 minutes' walk each way. However, these places are each less than 10 minute drive each way, and within 20 minutes' one way drive I have access to quite a few options - not exhaustive, of course. Just for example when my MacBook crapped out recently, I was told to bring it in to an AppleCare location, and that would be about two and a half hours' drive each way.

With a reliable car (or maybe a bicycle, scooter, etc.) I'm not super connected but I'm not completely isolated. Without one, I may as well be on the moon.

No street lights, no tube, no Uber!

pretty much all of Ireland…🤣🤣

A place where the locals won't speak to you for at least ten years, at which point you are awarded a pitch fork and a burning torch to then become one of them.

Ten years? Some places clearly have low standards.

Haha. The rural community I live in, is a mix of locals(some welsh speaking) and people from all over the UK(esp the midlands) that have moved here. Everyone speaks to you, including if your a newbie to the place.

No shops a short walk away. No train station. Limited bus service. No takeaways.

I stopped by to see a friend in a small village, and there were no local shops. It was about a five mile journey to the next village to a pub. We walked that, upon talking to the locals that was a rarity. It was about fifteen minutes to the nearest town in a car and supermarket. After living in a city that felt cut off - mainly as there weren't any nice walking routes to the next town, you had to risk your life on village lanes. I live in a small hamlet that's over an hour walk to a small grocery shop, but at least I can do that cross country.

It would be a detached house without neighbours for a few minutes, no shops or pubs nearby.

Everything is a drive away, living in a field basically.

Outside of a major city 😭

Seriously though, if there are fields and farm animals, and windy roads = rural imo

Where I live! Small hamlet of 4 houses surrounded by fields and forests on a single track country lane. Nearest shop is a drive (about 3.5 miles away) and it’s over 6 miles to school. We have more sheep and cows in a mile radius of our house than there are people. I’d count the villages round our way as rural too. Mostly farming communities and ex mining.

My village created its own community run shop for basics during Covid. Does that mean we’ve turned ourselves from rural to urban accidentally… 15/20min drive to the next nearest shop.

We have to define if some thing is rural or suburban or urban for work purposes for government Funding. It's not an exact science but most of you are wrong 😁. Rural generally is taken to mean a population of less than 10,000. So it could be a town and definitely have a shop or 3 or a takeaway!

I live in a rural environment. We have one shop and pub within walking distance but no school, no public transport, no street lights, no pavements, no mains gas, no mains sewage. Surrounded by farmland and the sea. Five miles from the GP & chemist, eight miles from a supermarket, 17 miles from a city.

Really?? I think I must have led a very sheltered life, I had no idea! I was thinking of Norfolk, where the absence of decent public transport I encountered as a teen traumatised me!

Silly made up word. They mean they live out in the countryside.

In what way ‘made up’?

late Middle English: from Old French, or from late Latin ruralis, from rus, rur- ‘country’.

That’s an odd document…

It seems to define most of the UK as rural (outside the major urban centres) - which I don’t think is the case - particularly not in the SE of England.

It also seems to define North Essex (where I grew up) as more rural than SW Shropshire (where I now live) - which definitely is not the case.

I’d define rural as anywhere where there are more fields / undeveloped land than houses / developed land and certainly no large population centres.

Currently I live 7 miles from the nearest shop, 11 miles from the nearest petrol station, 15 miles from a mainline train station (~2 hours from the nearest major city), >200m from my nearest neighbour, about an hour from a hospital with A&E. I.e. ‘properly rural’ - so my frame of reference may be a little skewed

Miles from the nearest neighbour.