So-called recreation counties – areas with parks, beautiful scenery and room for outdoor activities – are still the fastest-growing type of rural county, but their growth rate has slowed dramatically since the 2008-09 recession, says the Daily Yonder. The Yonder says a USDA analysis “found that recreation counties were the only type of rural county to show any appreciable growth in 2010-14.” Together, recreation counties had a 1.4-percent increase in population over the four-year period. “That’s still pretty anemic compared to population growth from 2003 to 2007, before the Great Recession,” when population grew by 5.1 percent. Rural farming and manufacturing counties lost population from 2010-14.