The report published by The Commission for Rural Communities (CRC) is described as the “latest definitive picture of rural England" and particularly highlights the fact that there are now nearly 400,000 fewer young people aged 15-29 in rural areas than just twenty years ago.
The report itself has 6 parts: an Introduction; a central section with 3 chapters entitled "living in the countryside", "economic wellbeing" and "land and environment"; a discussion about sustainable rural communities; and set of annexes.
Each chapter in the central section is accompanied by an Excel file of the data within it and a pdf document including the maps. One of the annexes is a table of information about the data in the report, including details of the sources.
State of the Countryside 2007 Press Release usefully summarises the key points