As a non-American, I’m very confused by this. If it’s a town, it’s not rural by definition. Because, you-know, it’s urban.

Also, could we get a definition of town vs small town. Do you not have the concept of a village? (Village in the UK would be a settlement with a population of a couple of thousand, with usually a pub, local shop, maybe a post office and primary school if you’re lucky).

  • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    There are named towns in the US with populations in the single digits. This can be due to either the population moving away, fleeing, or simply dying off over time – Centralia, PA leaps to mind – or because it’s just a cluster of a couple of houses at a crossroads that would otherwise be in the middle of nowhere. There may not necessarily be a post office or any other services there.

    In fact, there are “towns” in the US in that they are named on the map and have a defined location filed with the state/county/Postal Service, but they have no inhabitants at all. In many cases this is because a planned development never actually happened.