Changes in social and economic characteristics of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan area residents from 1970-80 are documented and compared with characteristics of the 1960s. Rural growth and change and rural-urban differences are emphasized in data on population, family, education, labor force, employment, income, poverty, and housing. All basic data are included in appendix tables derived from the United States censuses of population and housing for 1960, 1970, and 1980. Major changes discovered in rural counties include rapid growth in manufacturing, increasing numbers of working women with children, and a steep rise in single-parent families; more people migrated into nonmetropolitan areas from metropolitan areas during the decade than moved in the opposite direction. Other findings include: the service sector accounted for 73 percent of nonmetropolitan employment growth during the 1970s; over half the women with children worked outside the home in 1980 in both urban and rural areas; nonmetropolitan median income was only 79 percent of metropolitan income in 1979; poverty among the elderly fell nationwide from 27.3 percent in 1969 to 14.8 percent in 1979 and from 37 percent to 20.3 percent in nonmetropolitan areas. Tables, charts, and graphs throughout the text supplement the appendix tables. (LFL)