Is it better to live in a rual town or a urban town?

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I have been living in a small town for a long time. Perhaps too long. I really love to live in a suburban area for a change or city. I pretty much have a culture life style already. I love art galleries, museums, music concerts, and art stores. I also really love to meet a more diverse group of people too.
But It cost too much to live in apartment.

My answer: it depends.

In many cities, apartments could actually be affordable. It is best to look in the ads. It is also best, if you don't have a car, to live with 1/2 mile of any public transportation. It is also best to observe a neighborhood during the day, and at night, to see if there's drug activity, shady characters, etc.

In NYC, apartments, for the most part, are not affordable for those making under about $50,000 a year.

I would love to live in a rural area--but with ready access to "culture." My only requirement is to live near a main road which is plowed frequently in winter. Living far away from a river, on high ground, would also be preferable.

After living in three very different locations and visiting several others extensively in my life, I learned years ago that living about an hour's drive outside a major city is preferable. An hour's drive is nothing if you are attending the city's symphony, opera, professional sports teams and restaurants. But, it is far enough away to enjoy the silence, calm and, generally, lower prices of smaller towns. As it is now, I live about 20 minutes south of Salt Lake City; not as far from the cluster f as I would like, but better. I avoid the city and its merchants because of some apparent corruption there. So, I happily drive elsewhere even if that means going almost an hour out of my way to avoid it.

Is Salt Lake City a place with a large downtown--or is it a place with downtown dormant on weekends, with many malls and suburbs surrounding it? I've heard that there has been a massive population increase in SLC during recent times.

Salt Lake City proper is just 175,000 residents (the original city was bounded on all sides long before they realized that they would need more room), but the Salt Lake Metropolitan Statistical Area is about 2 million residents. The state of Utah has about 3 million residents.

As a result of two-thirds of the state's population residing in one large metro area, we exist as a large city in an otherwise empty desert-mountain state. Salt Lake City is surrounded by dozens of other cities and townships meaning we have an abundance of suburbs which are still actually nice. The urban areas in the immediate five counties are small but crowded and noticeably corrupt. But, at least crime (other than grafitti) is minimal. I and many others attribute that nice fact to the state's laws which encourage safe and legal firearm ownership and use.

You are correct about the population boom. Utah is one of the western states which has been increasingly Californicated since about 2002 when the Olympics showed certain people how attractive living here would be for them. As a member of one of the founding families, I temporarily lived also in northern and southern California until I got the heck outta Dodge and returned to some semblence of civilization.

I love urban living. You meet more people and there is many things to do. Arcades. Festivals. Malls. Movies.
There are a lot of recreational parks around. I would not mind country living but I have been out to some houses and you have neighbors
that are 7-10 miles away. I can't do it. I'll visit the rural though. Stargazing and just to have some fresh air.

I can admit when you are in the urban city it is crowded. That really bugs me but I am a patient person overall.

For dating, urban all the way. In a rural area, once you meet the 300 or so people that live within 100 miles of you, that's it. If you're not compatible with them, then you're pretty much out of luck until you move or someone new moves in (which doesn't happen often in those types of communities). I've lived in rural areas and, while there are a few perks, socializing is NOT one of them.

^Yeah, that's a paradox of living where I do.

A lot of what makes it enjoyable for me to live here is that there aren't a lot of people in the state:
Lots of trees, not so many roads, little traffic, low crime, etc.

There are a few things about urban life that I do miss (I moved here from a relatively big city/populous area),
incl. there being enough people so that there was some chance I'd meet another compatible person
('cause I'm quirky in ways that don't mesh well with most folks).

Can't bear to go back to city living, it's too noxious and overwhelming-
yet staying happily here has the painful downside of loneliness.
Aargh.

Live in the city now. Go to the country later. Trust me. You'll have better chances of finding a cool date.

As soon as I am old enough, I'm moving to Chicago. Living in my trailer park surrounded by tiny towns is horrible and there is nothing to do, nowhere to go, and nobody to meet. It's boring, lonely, and most of the time pretty depressing. When I move out, I don't plan on ever coming back.