What is the new rural paradigm? Its main characteristics are a focus on places rather than sectors and an emphasis on investments rather than subsidies. In an era of reduced agricultural employment, this report highlights the important and diverse challenges facing rural areas, their unused...

The challenges faced by Mexico’s rural areas are significant. Mexico's countryside is home to a large population (more than the overall population of many OECD countries) that is highly dispersed and largely living in poverty. The potential of these areas is however significant, as their vast...

OECD's review of rural policy in Quebec. It finds that in rural Québec, both population and personal income are growing, on average, and the province’s economic base continues to diversify. Land occupancy is more homogenous than in the rest of Canada, due to the presence of denser networks of...

Rural England plays a significant role in the economy of the United Kingdom, but an even larger social and cultural role. And it is unique among OECD regions, in that it is geographically compact, with rural inhabitants generally no more than a half hour’s drive from an urban area. There is...

Finland is one of the most rural countries within the OECD, and it is also one of the early adopters of a multi-sectoral approach to rural policy. The Finnish model of rural policy has been reasonably successful in achieving coherence among sectoral policies oriented to rural areas (the...

With more than 700 million residents living in rural areas, China is still a predominantly rural country. But despite substantial improvements in standards of living, the Chinese countryside is largely lagging behind. This report analyses the key socio-economic forces at work in China's rural...

Faced with high population density, close proximity of urban areas and urban-rural linkages, rural areas in the Netherlands have witnessed a gradual disappearance of characteristically rural landscapes and a deterioration of biodiversity. Future developments will increase pressures on rural land...