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The population in rural counties increased 2.4 percent from 2000 to 2007, one-third the growth rate of the entire United States (7.2%). The fastest growth rates in the country during this period, according to U.S. Census figures, were in the nation's exurban regions.

Thirteen states lost rural population from 2000 to 2007. The group of states losing rural population were concentrated in the Great Plains. The 13 states that lost population were Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, North Dakota, Nebraska, West Virginia, New York, Mississippi, Arkansas, South Dakota, Indiana, New Mexico and Alaska.

The states with the largest increases in numbers of rural residents were primarily clustered in the Southeast. Florida and North Carolina each added 148,000 rural residents from 2000 to 2007. Georgia had an increase of 124,000 rural residents.

(For a full listing of states and their change in rural population during the first seven years of this century, see the bottom of this story.)

Only two states lost population overall during this seven year period — Louisiana and North Dakota. Louisiana saw its population drop more than 175,000 from 2000 to 2007, largely as a result of Hurricane Katrina, which struck the state in 2005. All of those losses came from metropolitan areas of the state. Both rural and exurban parts of Louisiana gained people.

Only two states lost urban population — Louisiana and West Virginia. (Urban counties would include both central cities and inner suburbs.) Nationally, urban population increased 7.2%.

And no state lost population in exurban counties. (These are counties that are close to cities, but have some rural characteristics.) The growth rate in exurban America was nearly 11% in this 7-year stretch, more than four times the growth rate for rural counties.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service found from July 2005 to July 2006, rural counties grew because of an increase in domestic migration. More people were moving into rural counties from metro areas than were going the other direction. Most of that migration into rural areas in that year took place in the West, the Texas Hill Country, Florida and Northern Virginia. (See map above.) Farming areas continued to see a loss of population due to migration.

Below are the 48 states ranked by their increase in rural population from 2000 to 2007. (Rhode Island and New Jersey have no rural counties.)

Here is the ranking of the states according to the change in exurban population from 2000 to 2002. Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Hawaii and Wyoming have no exurban counties.

This final list shows the change in urban population from 2000 to 2007 by state. The list includes Washington, D.C.