"City" versus "Country"

[Zenmervolt]

I got to thinking about this on the way home tonight, driving through the fake "country" of Kent/Covington Washington, outside of Seattle.

I have a friend who is steadfast in her insistence that she grew up in a "small town"...of 15,000 people (according to Wikipedia).

This is 15-30 times the size of what I consider to be a "small town", in fact, it's roughly the size of the average large suburb where I grew up. I grew up in a village of 4,500 and considered it to be a large town and definitely more "city" than "country".

This got me thinking about where the cut-off was for other people. So what's the threshold for something to be the "country" for you?

No poll, I want to hear thoughts too; not just answers.

ZV

 

[SlitheryDee]

I live next to a corn field. Good enough for me.

 

[Chaotic42]

Around here, it's where the cable service cuts off.

I didn't even grow up in a town. It was a 15 mile drive into the "city" of 2,000 people.

 

[Cattlegod]

I usually go by the 'City Limits' sign

 

[Alone]

A small town is a place where you know pretty much everyone by name.

A country is...well...nothing like a city.

 

[Rogodin2]

I grew up on a 20 acre parcel of desert that was 12 miles from a town of 1300. My parents then moved us into the hellhole that is lynwood, for one year (when I was 6 and my little brother 3). When I returned to our acreage and our old home it was one of Plotinus' mystic visions.

I've lived in Seattle, Eugene, Portland, Ellensburg, Quincy, Ephrata, and Bend.

The country is receeding. I don't count Moscow, St.Petersburg, and London, though I lived in those cities for close to 8 months.

Rogo

 

[GeekDrew]

I grew up five miles outside of the nearest village incorporation (WikiPedia: The population was 1,265 at the 2000 census), in what I consider to be a rural environment (not rural enough, but that's beside the point).

What I consider to be the nearest town (WikiPedia: The population was 6,704 at the 2000 census) is probably about 10 miles away from our farm. What I consider to be the nearest city (WikiPedia: As of the 2000 census, the city population was 35,335) is... eh, 15-20 miles away from home.

While I think that where I live is rural, I don't think that it's rural *enough*. I want to have miles between homes, huge farms, etc. There are *occasionally* miles between homes out here, but that is rare; there are homes all over the place out here. We're about 5 miles from the end of the Time-Warner cable network, AT&T just laughs when anyone mentions our area; Verizon shudders, curls up in the fetal position, and sucks its thumb (it is the only telecom that services the area, if you can call their crap telecom).

</ramble>

 

[cubby1223]

Living 60 miles from Chicago, growing up I considered my town of 15,000 as a small town (though it's growing, now up to 25,000, and just got our first Wal*Mart, we're moving up!)

Around here, "country" is farms. Everything west of me is farmland, and everything east of me is suburbs.

 

[Regs]

When hunting will be less time consuming than traveling to the nearest grocery store.

 

[FoBoT]

once you have a walmart (or target or kmart, etc) , you are no longer a small town

around here the smallest town with a walmart has about 6,763 peoples

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: SlitheryDee
I live next to a corn field. Good enough for me.

ditto, except this year they rotated the crop and it's hay.

 

[middlehead]

Town I grew up in floated/still floats between 6500 and 7000 people, with around 1100 of those being college students. I wouldn't have called it "country," but it's definitely "small town." You'd only have to go about a mile out of city limits before you hit 'country,' though.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Hmmm....I've never lived anywhere with less than 40-50,000 people. However, at the extent of some of those city limits, it could get pretty "country". I consider it "country" as soon as the number of persons per farm animals start dropping like a rock.

Anyhow, I consider my current city of 45,000 (if you include the snowbirds) to be small since I moved here from a metro area of 3 million.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

To me it's more of the atmosphere and architecture than the population.

 

[homercles337]

IMO, A town is anything that does not have the accoutrements of a city. Arts, entertainment, dining, convenience, transit. However, in reality its based on population.

 

[Linflas]

Country

 

[deerslayer]

The town I live in had 3,881 people at the 2000 census according to Wikipedia.

The town I was born in had 505 people at the 2000 census according to Wikipedia.

I guess I would consider anything under 1,000 a village, and under 8,000 to be a town. I wouldn't necessarily consider everything above that a "city", but it's no longer a town, and definitely not a village. The town my girlfriend lives in has a population of over 15,000 and they call it a village :roll:

 

[vi edit]

I grew up in a town of 2000, my graduating high school class was 48. We had an annual "drive your tractor to school" day. That's definitely "country".

IMHO, if your town has more grain elevators than fast food restaurants (1-0 for my town), then you are definitely country.

 

[dullard]

I grew up in what I call a town: ~18,000 people. I think technically that is in the small city range based on the population, but I called it a town.

Country to me means you can see non-town areas from where you are. Whether that is farmland or just wilderness, that is my criteria. And no, living on the very edge of a city doesn't count. There has to be at least a mile between your home town and the nearest city/suburb/town border for you to be in the country.

 

[waggy]

google mapwith wiki link!

my last house was a 80 acre farm. so yeah that was country also.

 

[mugs]

I grew up in a rural area, but my town had 5000 residents. They're just spread over a really wide area. There are a few developments along the main road through the area, but the town passed an ordinance many years ago that prohibits building a house on fewer than 5 acres so it is still pretty rural.

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: mugs
I grew up in a rural area, but my town had 5000 residents. They're just spread over a really wide area. There are a few developments along the main road through the area, but the town passed an ordinance many years ago that prohibits building a house on fewer than 5 acres so it is still pretty rural.

Wow that's pretty restrictive. My county has a similar deal but for us you can't sell lots for under 5 acres unless you subdivide them. To subdivide you have to pave streets, do curb & gutters, go through a bunch of regulations, ect. Makes it pretty cost & procedure prohibitive that is sitting on like 20 acres to chunk it up into say 2 acre parcels.

 

[ryan256]

Directions to my grand parents' house included the phrases, "Turn off the paved road" and "When you get back to civilization".
They were definitely country.

 

[iamwiz82]

My brother lives in a county without a stop light. That's pretty country

 

[Skotty]

My take on it:

the country: sparsely populated unnamed areas
not a real town: any named town with < 1,000 people
small town: 1,000 to 15,000
town: 15,000 to 40,000
large town: 40,000 to 75,000
small city: 75,000 to 150,000 <-- where I live
city: 150,000 to 500,000 <-- what I consider ideal to live near
large city: 500,000 to 1,000,000
metropolis/megalopolis: 1,000,000 to 5,000,000
ludicropolis: 5,000,000 to 10,000,000
runaway infestation: 10,000,000+