I have lived in the city, and in the sticks, and also the suburbs. The suburbs was my least favourite. Some people have said some their suburb is OK with shops and theatres and high streets and pubs and suchlike, but many suburbs are not like that. If you're lucky, you will have a little 'spar' type shop and a bus stop.
The sort of suburb on the outskirts of the town I used to live, had homes that were mostly post early 80's. And all the old fields and meadows of the town were swamped with 1000s of new houses. And many homes were situated in a cul de sac, in a cul de sac, in a cul de sac, with the nearest bus stop 12-15 minutes walk, the main town 5 miles away, and no shops for a minimum of 2 to 3 miles..
At the same time, they lacked character, soul, and personality, and were rammed with the snooty faux middle classes with their 4 wheel drive car on the drive (cos you NEED a 4 wheel drive in the suburbs of a large town!) who worked in lower management.
I lived in a suburb for 7 years and pretty much hated it to be honest. I lived in a cul de sac inside a cul de sac that was 5 miles from the nearest town, the cinema, the train station, and takeaways and chip shops, high streets, pubs, restaurants etc. The neighbours were snooty and unfriendly, and we only moved there for the excellent primary school that was 2 minutes walk from the end of our cul de sac. All we had was a bus stop 10 minutes walk from our house, and one little shop 15 minutes walk away from our house where the products were double the normal price.
If someone lives in a suburb that has theatres and takeaways and shops and a train station and restaurants and pubs within a few minutes walk, then I would suggest that is more like a small town. No suburb I have ever experienced is like that. It may have a pub, or one shop, and a bus stop, but it certainly doesn't have the myriad of things some people claim their suburb has.
Living in the city is good in some ways, for culture, theatres, restaurants, good transport, jobs, concert venues, nightlife, takeaways, lots of shops etc etc, and you could probably walk to work, but there is the downside; high volume of traffic and people, pollution, and crime and noise. An OK place to live as a young single person (or couple,) but I wouldn't want to bring kids up in an inner city. As a pp said, the inner city is not the glam and cool metro experience that people are making it out to be, and it isn't the best place to raise a family imo.
Being in the sticks is a great place to be, for beauty and nature and woodlands and waterways etc, and there is low crime, low traffic, few people, and low pollution, and the schools are often good, and the communities much closer, with many activities for the villagers. And it's a good place to raise kids. But they are often close to small market towns with few things going on, and not a lot there except the most basic shops, (and you can sometimes be 40 minutes drive from the nearest train station, cinema, or theatre, or a big shopping centre.)
So IMO, the city is good to live as a young (child-free) person or couple, but being in the sticks is a slightly better place when you're older.
Ideally, the best place to raise kids is (IMO) living in a village that's only 5 or 6 miles from a fairly big town or small city (pref with a train station on the edge of the village for good transport links and a 5 minute train ride into the big town/city.) Places like this are less common though, and expensive to live in.
Each to their own though, and I would not berate anyone for their choices. 