Rural and urban residents share many views on politics and the economy, a new survey shows

American Communities Project chart, from americancommunities.org data

Even though rural and urban residents remain divided on some issues, a new study found they have a lot more political and economic concerns in common, reports Liz Carey of The Daily Yonder. "The American Communities Project survey questioned more than 5,000 people across 15 different community types to show a more complex picture of how rural and urban residents view issues."

The survey yielded several surprising results. "What was interesting," researcher Dante Chinni told Carey "is how much rural residents' opinions were similar to those of urban residents. . . . The study found that residents in rural communities felt that the biggest issue in their lives locally was inflation." Carey reports: "Only in communities in the African American South, a rural subcommunity within ACP's 15 community categories, did anything else come close to inflation as an issue." Guns and crime topped their list.

Nearly 70 percent of those surveyed "agreed with the statement 'Americans have much more in common with each other than is generally believed,'" Carey writes. Commenting on the shared responses, Chinni told Carey: "I think people really want this to be true. They want there to be more in common, whether or not there actually is."

When asked about abortion, most survey respondents in rural and urban communities "agreed with the statement 'Obtaining an abortion should be a decision made by a woman in consultation with her doctor, without government's involvement,'" Carey reports. Ari Pinkus, one of the project researchers, told Carey: "What's interesting is how abortion was widely accepted by at least 50% of the population, across the community types, even in (more rural conservative areas) where you would think that they would be less okay with abortion. . . . It could be the way we asked the question because people don't like to get in the way of a woman and her doctor, but it's still notable that abortion is a topic of unity in the population."

Survey respondents did voice differing ideas about gun ownership. Carey reports, "When asked if 'the right to own a firearm is central to what it means to be an American,' residents in more rural communities were more likely to agree, whereas those in urban counties were more likely to disagree."