Well my cousins lived in the city when I was really young, moved to Oak Park when I was in kindergarten. They said we live 'in the country.' Elmhurst at the time had over 40k people, just not multi-family housing. LOL!
Past DeKalb is 'country.' I get to define it. Peoria is a town out in the sticks. Used to have heavy manufacturing, but that was gone years ago with exception of Caterpillar, which just announced the plant closing.