There has never been a list like our "Best Places To Live in Rural America," so when we decided to tackle this project we had to blaze our own trail. Rural counties have never been ranked this way before. But our sister Time Inc. publication, Money magazine, is famous for its annual Best Places issue that ranks cities. So we used the same statistical research group, OnBoard LLC, that Money uses.

We started with 600 counties with rural areas that met our population, population density and income criteria. Then we ranked them by health care (the number of hospitals and clinics in the county); education (student/teacher ratio and number of higher learning institutions); climate (average temperature and rainfall); pollution index (ranked against the national average); crime index (personal and property crime ranked against the national average); and tax burden (county sales tax and state income tax only, since pro p e rty taxes vary too widely between municipalities). In each category, we used OnBoard's most recent stats.

After crunching the numbers, our editorial board looked at the intangibles, such as quality of life, leisure and cultural pursuits, and scenery. Our well-traveled staff made selections that stayed true to the numbers but also reflected our subjective opinions about the counties chosen. We also talked to residents in these counties; numbers can tell us a great deal about a place, but not as much as the people who live there.

Editors Karl Wolfshohl and Jamie Cole put the section together after months of research and travel. Executive Editor Joe Link and Senior Editor Jim Patrico traveled to some of our top 10 counties and came back with reports and photos. The regional lists combine our editors' favorites with OnBoard statistics for a look at the best in each region of the country.

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