what is rural community

A rural community is an open area of land that has few homes or other buildings and not very many people. Rural areas are sparsely populated, have low housing density, and are far from urban centers. The U.S. Census Bureau defines rural as "all population, housing, and territory not included within an urbanized area or urban cluster". However, the existence of multiple rural definitions reflects the reality that rural and urban are multidimensional concepts. Sometimes population density is the defining concern, in other cases, it is geographic isolation. Small population size typically characterizes a rural place, but how small is rural? Population thresholds used to differentiate rural and urban communities range from 2,500 up to 50,000, depending on the definition. As a result, the rural portion of the United States encompasses a wide variety of settlements, from densely settled small towns and "large-lot" housing subdivisions on the fringes of urban areas, to more sparsely populated and remote areas.