Pressures of place: urban–rural variation in considerations for political participation

Americans vary significantly in how and why they participate in politics, and previous research illustrates the differences across demographic groups, including by socioeconomic status, age, and race. We contend that self-reported place of residence also contributes to people’s political participation considerations. Given the growing urban–rural divide in political affiliation and vote choice, we also expect considerations around political participation to exhibit place-based variation. Using data from two original surveys of American adults (N = 3286 and N = 3060), we find that considerations around time, importance, and social factors for protesting and voting vary between urban and rural residents. In general, city residents tend to weigh considerations more heavily than rural residents, especially the time it takes to get to the polling place and to the protest, the time it takes to vote, and whether someone will view the person negatively at a protest. This trend persists when controlling for recent voting and protest activity, and across different data sets. Overall, this work underscores the importance of examining place-based differences in political participation and sets an agenda for future work into why city residents are more likely to contemplate political participation considerations.