In response to concerns resulting from changes in metropolitan growth during the past decade, and the concomitant gain in population of nonmetropolitan areas, this study was conducted in an effort to understand the effects of such growth on the quality of rural life and the physical environment. Data analyzed dealt with safisfactions, perceptions, evaluations, behaviors, and environmental characteristics, as seen by rural residents in three national and one regional (northern Michigan) surveys conducted between 1971 and 1976. The studies, which included questionnaires, personal interviews, and telephone interviews, defined the population groups by age, race, income and educational levels, job status, and occupation, with the last three categories looked at separately for men and women. Results indicated a somewhat "mixed picture" of life in rural America. In most instances, a greater satisfaction than dissatisfaction was seen in rural areas than in urban areas, but rural residents taken as a whole were seen to be neither better nor worse off than urban Americans. Stemming from limitations of using available national data in characterizing life in rural America, six issues concerning research tasks were identified which should be addressed by policy makers and other groups and individuals concerned with the quality of rural life. (JD)

Populations of rural areas continue to decline, yet some communities are more vibrant than ever. While past research has studied current satisfaction or well-being, few have examined future well-being. Using an ordinal logistic regression and combining primary and secondary data sources, this study investigates the predictors of rural Nebraskan's sense of future well-being, both at the community and individual levels. The model indicates that resilience may be more important in well-being than social capital. Additionally, certain satisfaction indicators are more important than others. Factor analysis was employed to reindex variables, and findings were similar. Social capital, resilience, and quality of life are closely related and it is difficult to extract individual effects of these phenomena. This study finds complex, interrelated factors that contribute both economically and socially to the makeup of communities and resident's experiences, and thus to the perceived future wellbeing of both communities and individuals. This points to a well-rounded development approach that supports building resilience as well as providing amenities that satisfy needs of consumers. It also suggests that it doesn't matter how rural or urban a place is or what the economic base is but rather what is offered in the community and the social structure of a place.

The concept of social capital has become increasingly prominent in both the theoretical and applied social science literature over the last decade. This publication seeks to provide a set of empirical tools to measure social capital, focusing on its application in developing countries. The methodology aims to generate quantitative data on various dimensions of social capital as part of a larger household survey (such as the Living Standards Measurement Survey or a household income/expenditure survey). The paper also provides detailed guidance for the use and analysis of the data.

Recent research suggests that rural residents in the global North are happier than urban populations in the same countries. This goes against received wisdom in the field, where the opposite is usually assumed. Is quality of life better in the rural areas? How and under which circumstances is this the case? What can we learn from digging deeper into the rural-urban happiness paradox and which critical questions does this leave us with for the future? What might policymakers, planners, architects, and other decision-makers learn about how, when, and where to intervene? Rural quality of life delves deeper into these matters by asking what quality of life in rural areas is all about - in everyday life, through interventions in the built environment, in civil society and measures of subjective well-being.

The paper PERCEPTION OF THE LIFE QUALITY IN THE RURAL COMMUNITIES IN ROMANIA" analyses the transition of the rural communities, from the nationalized-centralized economy, to the market economy, by specific phenomen appeared in agriculture and rural development, with economic and social implications. These were approached from the perspective of the evolution of the integrated and sustainable rural development concepts compared to the elements of sustainability and compliance with the natural environmental factors, developed under the European Union and national financing programs, that determined the simultaneous benchmark of the development and integration programs. A special attention is given to the impact that the rural development programs have on the general development of the county. In this regard some aspects of best practices, the study of the development processes and their compliance with the European Union, national, euro regional, regional policies projections, as well the dynamics and influence of the mutations in the rural area were highlighted."