Country folk are a dying breed

People who live in the country are getting older and poorer. That seems to be the conclusion of the Commission for Rural Communities in its State of the Countryside 2007 report. There are nearly 400,000 fewer young people in rural areas than there were 20 years ago - which is hardly surprising when you discover it costs £60 a week more for a household to live in rural areas when compared with urban living. The CRC press release can be downloaded as a PDF document; the full 4.5MB report is also available as a PDF download. On a positive note, there are now almost 400 vineyards in England and Wales...