William E. Bivens, III For the first time in more than 160years, the
nation's rural areas and small towns are growing faster than its
metropolitan areas. The 1980Census of Population shows that the
nonmetropolitan population increased by 15.4010 during the 1970s, while
the metropolitan population grew by only 9.1010. During the 1960s, rural
areas and small towns had lost some 2.8 million people to cities and
their suburbs, but during the 1970s at least 4 million more people moved
into nonmetropolitan areas than left them. This rural- oriented
population growth resulted from a number of factors, including a strong
preference for rural and small-town living, the decentralization of
manufacturing and related services, energyand other mining developments,
William E. Bivens, Ill, isthe Senior Policy Fellowfor Rural Affairs
ofthe National Gover- nors' Association. He is a rural development
generalist providing liaison between the gover- nors and federal
officials and performing applied policy research to support improvements
in rural development programs and systems for their delivery. Mr.
Bivenswas one of the designers of the Carter Administration's Small
Community and Rural Development Policy and provided the implementation
link involving the formation of governors' rural development councils.
Mr. Bivens attended Brown University and did postgraduate work at the
University of Texas, where he also taught American government and
politics. xiii xiv FOREWORD and comparatively high rural birthrates
along with improved infant mortal- ity rates.