How the Other Quarter Lives

Whoa! North Dakota has more people living in cities than Pennsylvania does? Really? It depends on what you mean by “city.” Kansas, for example, has 626 incorporated places – all of them called “cities” (no towns, no villages). Only 37 of those have populations in excess of 10,000 residents, compared to the 108 with populations of less than 100 residents. (If you think about it, it’s fascinating that a place like Freeport, KS – with a total population of 5 – can field a City Council. Citizen engagement? Yes, please!).
Even among local jurisdictions recognized for form of government by ICMA, the median population is only 13,015. My point here is that most local governance does not occur in large urban environments. Even in very populous states, there are vast tracts of very rural areas. In California, for example, 34 of the 58 county governments, 50 percent of the total land area, and as many people as live in the four smallest U.S. states combined are in rural counties (source).
However you define them, rural areas aren’t just tracts of ag lands and national forests between major metro areas – they include lots of your colleagues in local government. I am one of those colleagues. Although Humboldt County has 135,000 people, they are spread over an area the size of the states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined. From our county seat and population center in Eureka, it is four hours by car to the nearest city of 100,000 people.