the.com/countryside
Where the buildings thin out and the cows outnumber the opinions.
means The rural land beyond towns and cities — fields, farms, villages, and open green space.
from From Middle English, literally the side of country lying outside the town — country here meaning rural land, not nation.
Side storyThe side once meant a tract or region, not an edge.
Color codedIdealized as green; actual fields are often brown.
Population mathHolds most land but a shrinking minority of people.