The economy of rural areas is thoroughly integrated with the rest of the national economy. Far more people in the countryside work in services, IT and public administration than in agriculture. These figures are all lower than the equivalent figures in urban areas. People living in rural areas were also far less concerned about falling victim to crime than those living in other parts of the country. Small businesses in the countryside are prospering.
Rural areas receive a higher share of national lottery awards than urban areas.
There were 1.25 billion day visits to the countryside in 1998, five times the number of visits to the seaside and coast. In broad terms, the countryside is prosperous, contented and reasonably well-served, but this generality conceals many real problems and much genuine hardship. The Government has taken a number of measures, described in Chapter 7 of this report, to tackle the economic and social problems facing the countryside. Some, such as the New Deal, the National Minimum Wage, Working Families Tax Credit and increases to child benefit, benefit the country as a whole. Economic growth and the increases in public expenditure that this has made possible will help all rural areas and their communities.