It has taken gerontologists a long time to focus on the problems of rurality. More than half the older people in the world live in rural areas. The proportions of older people in local populations are higher in rural areas than in urban areas in most countries of the world. However, it was not until the year 2000 that the First Global Rural Aging Conference was held. This special issue looks as intergenerational relationships in rural areas and stems from an invited symposium at that conference.