Editorial Introduction: Diverse Geographies of Rural Ageing

Demographic ageing has come to be one of the defining narratives of the
twenty-first century (Skinner, Cloutier and Andrews, 2015; Skinner, Andrews and
Cutchin, 2018). It is now well established that, in most Global North contexts, rural
communities, spaces and places are ageing faster than urban areas. This is the
outcome of a complex interaction between demographic and socio-economic
processes that are spatially uneven at local, regional, national and supra-national
scales. The consequences of rural demographic ageing are many and varied, with
implications for individuals, households, and communities, and for both local and
national governments (Davis, Crothers, Grant, Young and Smith, 2012; Doheny and
Milbourne, 2017).