Rural demography is, in some ways, a misnomer because it is really just demography in which the population of interest resides in an area defined as rural. As will be demonstrated below, it is not a discipline that analyzes distinct populations using a distinct form of demographic analysis. Whatever the appropriate label however, there is little doubt that rural demographers face unique conceptual and methodological challenges because of the small number of persons in the areal locations of their populations of interest. They are often forced to analyze data for areas which are simply defined as residual (to urban) geographic areas that may or may not be true functioning areas in which population patterns can, in fact, be attributed to their “rural” characteristics (for excellent discussions of this dilemma see Hugo, Champion, & Lattes, 2003; Isserman, 2005; Farmer, 2008).