I'll add that a lot of people in rural places are uneducated when it comes to sex and are more likely to deny their own kids that education growing up so you predictably end up with more accidental pregnancies and younger parents in rural places

This comment is mostly based on my own personal anecdotal experience, but that is mostly elitist nonsense. These people don’t know the difference between Sauterne and Riesling, they don’t have the most up-to-date received wisdom and luxury beliefs, but they know by and large where babies come from.

abstinence only "education" is more common in rural areas and is associated with higher rates of teen and unplanned pregnancies.

Thats nonsense.

If we lived in a rural area. We would have half dozen kids. We even fantasies about it with my SO. But my SO has no interest in living in a rural area, so that is that.

It's not as if that's the only reason there are more kids in rural areas, but if you did move to a rural area and had a bunch of kids your children would (statistically speaking) be more likely to have sex at a younger age than children in urban areas, they'd be less likely to have comprehensive sex ed in school and more likely to have abstinence only education which means they'd be more likely to have unplanned/teen pregnancies, and I suspect they'd be less able or less likely to abort unplanned pregnancies than their urban peers as well.

There are a lot of smart people in rural areas. They may look dumb and speak slow, but get to know them and you eventually discover they have a PhD.

It's not a question of being smart, it's about education. People in rural areas tend to have less education and are more likely to have inadequate sexual education (abstinence only sex ed programs for example) than people in urban environments.

PhD is the highest level of education. Despite your bias, farmers do value education, and have a lot more than you think.

They are more religious, but that is not the same as uneducated.

It isn't my bias, but simply true I'm afraid that people in rural areas are (statistically speaking) less educated than those in urban areas. See for example https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/emp...

The education gap between rural and urban settings is a subject of much concern and unfortunately the tendency towards religious views has led to increased ignorance about sex as comprehensive sex ed is more likely to be rejected in rural areas replaced by "abstinence only" programs which result in higher rates of unplanned/teen pregnancy and even where comprehensive sex ed is offered, religious parents are much more likely to forbid their children from attending.

It still your bias making a blanket statement that the data you link doesn't really back up. Sure there is less educated people in rural areas, but it isn't that much less.

Is this based on any experience or research of yours or is it just the bias that it sounds like?

It's based on abstinence only sex ed being more common in rural areas and also linked to higher rates of unplanned/teen pregnancies.

"education is the enemy of entrepreneurship.

the belief that university knowledge generates economic wealth stems more from superstition than empiricism. Empirical investigation shows no evidence that raising the general level of education raises a country's income level.

But we know the opposite is true, that wealth leads to the rise of education - that's not an optical illusion"

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

It's got less to do with "university knowledge" and more to do with the fact that rural areas have less comprehensive sex ed and higher rates of teen/unplanned pregnancy as a result.

Once when visiting Honduras, I was having a casual conversation with a local construction worker and we got to talking about family.

I told him I had 7 kids. He looked at me with all sincerity and asked "You don't have a television?"

We have a TV. We believe children are a blessing from God and we'll take as many blessings as He'll give us. Many of my fellow country bumpkins believe as I do. I think religion has a big impact on the differences between rural and urban family reproduction.