Even if somebody would have been talking about the US, I would call neither "North Dakota" nor "Ohio" villages. Both are bigger than many european countries, and you certainly are going to find regions were the population increases and some where it decreases.

As rural jobs grow, so too do prices[1]. I don’t think this trend is still there, but that’s also because the job market is not as strong as it was during the fracking boom.

If there were meaningful numbers of well paying jobs in inexpensive rural places, they would cease to be either rural or inexpensive.

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2014/2/19/5425040/williston-north-d...

Nobody wants to live in those places, we just complain that it is too expensive in San Francisco and Vancouver