When we think about rural communities, we tend to conjure up images of faith, large families, friendly neighbors, and conservative values—the exact opposite of the trends that mark our nation’s urban centers these days.
Unfortunately, as Bob Dylan once famously sang, “The times they are a-changin … ” And just as the times changed in urban America several decades ago regarding marriage and family, they have changed in rural communities, as well.
Over the past three decades, marriage rates have actually fallen further among rural women between the ages of 15 and 44 than among urban women of the same age—from 55% in 1998 to 33% in 2018, according to two sociology professors writing for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
While there was also a decline among urban women, as many of us would expect, the marriage drop among rural women was even lower.
So, what has…
