Rural America is changing.

• Position: TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS - Report - Brief article

If you think most rural Americans wear overalls and wake up at 5 a.m. to milk the cows, think again. A new report from The Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire finds, among other significant population and demographic changes, that while agriculture remains important in some rural communities, only 6.5 percent of the rural labor force is engaged in farming. At the same time, the proportion of the rural labor force engaged in manufacturing equals that in urban America.

"Rural" is defined usually as a county outside a metro area (population greater than 100,000) with no cities over 50,000. Every state except New Jersey and Rhode Island has rural counties.

"Much of what people think about rural America is based on outdated stereotypes that equate rural America with farming," the report concludes. "Though agriculture remains important in hundreds of counties, rural America is now very diverse." The report is based on U.S. Census data. Among the key findings in the report:

* Rural areas gained 2.7 million people during the 1990s. That growth slowed in the later 1990s, but...