Factors influencing the decision of young adults to remain in their rural environment: Social origin, education and gender

This article analyses the circumstances and attitudes that explain why young adults from a specific area of inland Spain opt to remain in their rural place of origin. The analysis is based on open interviews with 41 young adults born and raised in the area in question. The interviews show that at least a third of them plan to stay in their place of origin, while others acknowledge that they would like to do so although they believe it will not be possible. The analysis reveals the important role that social origin, educational attainment and gender play in shaping the residential expectations of young rural adults, as these variables interact with each other and with the opportunity structure of the place. These interactions facilitate, on the one hand, the continued presence of those who have certain types of place-linked capital, and on the other, of males of low social origin and low educational level. •Mobility can convert what is local into a positive source of rural youth identity.•Lesser-educated young males adapt better to the local labour market.•Place matters in the residential expectations of young rural adults.•But due more to its condition of relational space than its rural nature.•Social origin influences the residential expectations of young rural adults.