I grew up in the country and a lot of people would have categorized my family as poor when I was really young.  My parents were really young, came from poor families (by anyone's standards) and were building their own house from the ground up (literally because they built the hill that they built the house into).  We had hand-me-down or hand made clothes.  We grew a lot of our own food and lived off from canning a lot of it.

I never knew what I was missing and I had a beautiful environment to distract me from what I didn't have.  That is why I have recently had the thought that being poor in the country must be easier than being poor in the city.  In the city, you are surrounded by all the things you can't afford.  It is a constant reminder of what you don't have.  In the country you have the beauty of nature that a lot of people travel to visit.

In the country you can grow/raise food.  Running around bare foot is safe in the country.  Matter of fact, everything is much safer in the country.  Although having a sparse population has its challenges too.  You might not have a bunch of people around to rob you but you also don't have anyone around to look out for you.  I know quite a few people who died from farm related accidents that would have lived if anyone would have been around to find them within hours of the accident.

I will take financially well off in the suburbs over poor in the country any day   I think though, if I came on hard times again, I would prefer to be in the country.