64 Percent of Rural Americans Live East Mississippi River

Sixty-four percent of Americans living in rural settings make their home east of the Mississippi River.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that "Maine and Vermont have the highest proportions of population living in rural areas (about 61.0 percent) and California has the lowest (4.9 percent)."

Nearly half of all rural residents (47 percent) are found in the South.

Overall, "about 60 million residents of the United States live in areas designated as rural." This term includes "the less-populated towns outside of large and small city centers to remote areas in the mountains, plains, and deserts across the nation."

The political gap between urban and rural America has become a significant issue in recent years, and the Census Bureau has provided new data on this great divide. Among other things, they found that 704 of the nation’s 3,142 counties are completely rural.

A total of 5.3 million Americans live in these counties.

Another 1,185 counties are classified as mostly rural.

Two-thirds of the 36.8 million people living in these counties are in a rural area.

The vast majority of Americans — 274.4 million people — live in 1,253 mostly urban counties. In these areas, just 11 percent of residents are found in a rural setting.

Each weekday, Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day explores interesting and newsworthy topics at the intersection of culture, politics, and technology. Columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.

Scott Rasmussen is founder and president of the Rasmussen Media Group. He is the author of "Mad as Hell: How the Tea Party Movement Is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two-Party System," "In Search of Self-Governance," and "The People’s Money: How Voters Will Balance the Budget and Eliminate the Federal Debt." Read more reports from Scott Rasmussen — Click Here Now.