Those cities can't really be compared to the cities in the US though.

But yeah calling it rural was not the best description. I agree. I was referring to the huge open areas of course.

The US has huge open areas too.

Actually, the biggest difference might be public transport: as long as they live in a decent city, you can give people transit passes and they can start to visit doctors, apply for jobs etc. like anyone else.

Sure they can. US cities are not uniform. For example Helsinki has roughly the population and metro density of Providence, Rhode Island. Finland may not have a New York or San Francisco, but that doesn't mean there's not good comparisons anywhere in the US.