By Janan Shoja Doost
A University of Guelph researcher is proposing a new way governments define “rural,” arguing that population size alone fails to capture the diversity of rural communities across Canada.
Dr. Ryan Gibson, a professor in the School of Environmental Design & Rural Development, and a team of researchers, including recent graduate student Danika Hammond and adjunct professor Sarah Patricia Breen, developed a “Rural Matrix” framework that combines population and remoteness to better reflect the realities of rural communities and inform government policy and programs.
The research was recently published in the Journal of Rural Studies.
“For decades, we have primarily defined rural by population size,” says Gibson. “However, that approach misses the diversity of experiences and realities across rural communities.”
Traditionally, governments have debated whether rural should mean fewer than 1,000, 10,000 or even 100,000 residents. Gibson says that regardless of the threshold chosen, population alone does not reflect how communities function or what supports they need.
A New Way to Define Rural Communities
To address this gap, the team developed a matrix that incorporates both population size and remoteness, focusing on rural communities in British Columbia. Using Statistics Canada’s Index of Remoteness, the model accounts for distance from urban centres, transportation access and geographic isolation.
“Two communities might have similar populations, but if one is a short drive from a major city and the other is fly-in, fly-out, their realities are fundamentally different,” Gibson says.
The team applied the model to communities across British Columbia, clustering them by population and remoteness. The result moves beyond a simple rural-urban divide, identifying distinct categories of rural communities.
The work has already sparked conversations within British Columbia's Ministry of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation, where policymakers are exploring how the matrix could shape future programs and funding decisions.
Beyond British Columbia
While the initial case study focused on British Columbia, Gibson says the framework could be applied in other provinces and sectors such as agriculture and forestry, and even internationally in countries like Australia and the United States, where similar rural policy challenges exist.
“Communities have told us they do not fit into current programs because of eligibility requirements tied to outdated assumptions,” he says. “This research offers an alternative grounded in data and lived realities.”
The research is funded by the University of Guelph with in-kind contributions from the Government of British Columbia.
