City, suburbs, or countryside: Where should you raise a child?

When you imagine a good place to raise a child, what do you picture?

A backyard where they can run barefoot? A city street where they can walk to school? A small town where everyone knows their name?

Each comes with an appealing version of childhood. But choosing where to live also means choosing the shape of your family’s ordinary days: how you get around, who you see, what your child can do independently, and how much time you spend getting everyone where they need to go.

As a gal who grew up in the suburbs of New York City, went to high school in the hustle and bustle of Manhattan, and married a man from rural Nevada, I am constantly questioning whether we are raising our children in the ideal scenario. I know many of my friends do, too. That’s why I set out to answer the question: Is it better to raise children in a city, the suburbs, or the countryside?

It turns out that there is substantial evidence that places matter. There is much less justification for declaring one of those three settings the winner.

The more useful question is: What does a particular place make possible for your child and your family?

The neighborhood matters beyond the house

One of the strongest studies comes from the U.S. Moving to Opportunity experiment. Randomly selected families living in high-poverty housing projects were offered vouchers to move to lower-poverty/wealthier neighborhoods.

Researchers followed children’s outcomes into adulthood. Moving before age 13 increased college attendance and earnings later in life. Moving afterwards had slightly negative effects, potentially because relocating disrupted established lives and relationships. [1]

The study doesn’t prove that suburbs are better than cities. It shows that the environment surrounding a child can influence their opportunities and that the timing of a move matters.

That’s a useful distinction when a property search becomes a comparison of bedrooms, square footage, and outdoor space.

The house is one part of the childhood. The neighborhood supplies much of the rest.

Greenery deserves a place on the list

A Danish study followed approximately 943,000 people, measuring the greenery around their childhood homes and examining later psychiatric diagnoses.

Children who grew up with the least greenery had higher subsequent risks of several psychiatric disorders. The association remained after researchers adjusted for factors including socioeconomic circumstances, urbanization, and family psychiatric history. [2]

This study doesn’t necessarily suggest that we all need to move to the countryside. The association persisted after accounting for urbanization, suggesting that greenery deserves attention within cities and suburbs, too.

For a family comparing homes, that raises more specific questions: What surrounds this building? Where are the trees? What green spaces could become part of an ordinary day?

Look closely at the school’s surroundings

Research from Barcelona makes the importance of the immediate environment especially clear.

A study followed 2,715 children attending 39 schools over a year. Children at schools with higher traffic-related air pollution showed smaller improvements in measures of cognitive development, including working memory. [3]

This was an association rather than definitive proof of causation, but it suggests that environmental differences within the same city deserve attention.

“Urban” can describe a school beside a busy road or one on a quieter street with a greener setting. The broad category misses details that may matter.

Alongside the curriculum and classroom, it is worth looking at what sits outside the school gates.

A bigger yard doesn’t tell us how much a child will move

It is easy to assume that children in the countryside are automatically more active.

Yet one study comparing urban and rural children found no difference in activity measured by accelerometers or in self-reported walking for exercise. One study cannot settle the question, but it challenges a familiar assumption. [4]

Available space and everyday movement are different things.

When comparing places, I’d want to picture an ordinary afternoon. Can a child reach a friend’s house? Where would they play? Is there a safe route to a park? Would every activity require an adult to drive?

Those questions could produce different answers in two suburbs or on two streets in the same city.

Distance can create tradeoffs

A quieter setting may also mean being farther from services.

In a U.S. study using data on 44,679 children, rural children had lower adjusted odds of receiving preventive healthcare and maintaining continuous insurance coverage than urban children. However, the likelihood of foregoing needed care was similar between groups. [5]

Those findings reflect the U.S. healthcare system; they should not be assumed to apply in the same way elsewhere.

Still, they highlight a practical consideration: how accessible are the services your particular family might need?

A pediatrician, specialist, therapist, or other source of support may become an important part of daily life. Their availability belongs in the decision alongside space and scenery.

Picture the Tuesday, too

The research makes me less interested in choosing a winning category and more interested in examining a specific place.

A city neighborhood might offer greenery, nearby friends, and convenient services. A suburb might offer those things, too, or require a car for nearly every trip. A rural home might bring space and close community while also creating longer journeys.

Those are possibilities to investigate, rather than qualities we can assume from an address.

And there is another part of the decision: what would living there ask of the adults?

Could you afford it comfortably? Who would be nearby to help? What would the commute look like? Would you have time for relationships and interests of your own?

The studies above don’t calculate a perfect balance for an individual family. But these questions help translate research into a life you can actually picture.

Before choosing, I’d ask:

• What would my child gain here?
• What would become harder?
• What could they eventually do without me?
• What would we be leaving behind?
• Could our family sustain this version of everyday life?

A backyard can be wonderful. So can walking home from school with a friend.

The challenge is understanding what comes with each and deciding which opportunities and tradeoffs fit the people who will live there.

What did you love about the place where you grew up, and what would you choose differently for your own family?

Hit reply. I’d love to hear.

With love,
Jacqueline

Research and further reading

[1] Neighborhoods and long-term opportunityChetty, R., Hendren, N., & Katz, L. F. (2016). The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children: New Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment. American Economic Review. Randomized voucher offers provide unusually strong evidence about neighborhood effects, although the study concerns a particular population and housing intervention. Read the paper.

[2] Childhood greenery and mental healthEngemann, K., et al. (2019). Residential green space in childhood is associated with lower risk of psychiatric disorders from adolescence into adulthood. PNAS. A large observational Danish study; its findings establish associations rather than proving causation. Read the study.

[3] Traffic pollution and cognitive developmentSunyer, J., et al. (2015). Association between Traffic-Related Air Pollution in Schools and Cognitive Development in Primary School Children: A Prospective Cohort Study. PLOS Medicine. The research followed children in Barcelona schools over twelve months. Read the study.

[4] Location, walking, and physical activityWalkability indices and children’s walking behavior in rural vs. urban areas (2021). This study illustrates why a rural or urban classification alone may not reliably describe children’s activity patterns. Read the study.

[5] Rural and urban access to healthcareCrouch, E., et al. (2024). Rural-urban differences in access to care among children and adolescents in the United States. Journal of Rural Health. A cross-sectional analysis of the 2019–2020 National Survey of Children’s Health. Read the abstract.