->''"Well I was born in a small town, and I can breathe in a small town.\\
[I'm] gonna die in this small town, and that's probably where they'll bury me."''
-->-- '''John Mellencamp''', "Small Town"

Many stories prefer a [[MajorWorldCities big city]] because it's exciting. But sometimes a story instead needs a small town setting, where people know each other, and "time slows down to a crawl". Of course, size is relative, and a small town can be anywhere from tens of thousands, to a few hundred, depending on your perspective.

Might overlap with AdventureTowns, the characters travel to a new setting--sometimes a small town--every episode, and * CloseKnitCommunity, a {{setting|s}} where people look out for each other.

Compare to CountrysideIndex and {{Arcadia}} (an out-of-the-way rural area where you get away from it all and enjoy simple pleasures); though, do remember not all small towns are rural. Contrast TheCity.
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!![[SubTrope Sub-tropes]]:
[[index]]
* BigTownBoredom: Someone from a bigger city or mid-sized suburb wishes they could move to a smaller or more rural place.
* CleanUpTheTown: Ridding a (small) town of the evils pervading it.
* CompanyTown: Usually fairly small, as the town's entire purpose is just to support one company's work.
* CornyNebraska: Nebraska can contain a lot of small towns known for their corn farms.
* DeepSouth: Home of small-town rednecks and miles of farmland, backwoods, mountains, and bayous.
* DownOnTheFarm: Classic view of fewer than 1000 people living in the middle of nowhere surrounded by farming fields.
* {{Dreamville}}: Dreams, VR scenarios, artificial realities and other imaginary events set in suburbia or small towns.
* DyingTown: A town that has lost its main reason for existing, resulting in a dwindling population.
* EccentricTownsfolk: A (small) town's population is full of strange, friendly characters.
* EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether: The adult cast went to the same school together and hasn't changed since then.
* EverytownAmerica: The stereotypical American small town.
* FakeTown: A fake, often uninhabited, but realistic-looking town.
* FlyoverCountry: American coast-dwellers see the land in-between as boorish, sparsely-populated, rural, and conservative.
* FromNewYorkToNowhere: When a character moves from a major city to a rural or small-town location.
* GhostTown: A town where (almost) no one lives.
* HalfWittedHillbilly: People from small towns are incredibly dumb.
* InformedSmallTown: A supposedly small town has an unrealistically wide range of facilities.
* LovecraftCountry: Rural [[HollywoodNewEngland New England]] is a land of [[EldritchLocation cosmic horrors]] and evil.
* NothingExcitingEverHappensHere: A supposedly ordinary, boring location is the site of an extraordinary event.
* OnlyShopInTown: A town is so small, it can only support one shop.
* QuirkyTown: A (small) town is portrayed as strange, but pleasant nevertheless.
* SmallTownBigHell: In a small town where all people meet each other, when drama occurs everyone ''will know'' about it.
* SmallTownBoredom: Someone grows tired of life in their dull little town or village, and wants to move into a larger city.
* SmallTownTyrant: Evil authority figure of a small town.
* SuburbanGothic media will take place in a sleepy smaller community
* SupernaturalHotspotTown: This town attracts the supernatural.
* TownWithADarkSecret: It's easier to keep a secret if only a small number of people are in on it.
* TyrannicalTownTycoon: A corrupt rich prick who rules over the small town like some sort of modern nobleman.
[[/index]]

!!Examples that don't fit any of the above:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': The heroes come from Emonds Field, a small town of a few hundred people. They get to a city (regional capital) and are all amazed at the size: thousands of people! Then they go to the capital city and discover that the "big city" they were so impressed by is considered a small town, and that nobody has even heard of Emonds Field.

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