I grew up in a small northeast Texas town. (And it's a true town, not a suburb of a larger city. Even when populations are similar, those are very different things.) I also spent a couple of years working in another when I was fresh out of college. There are upsides and downsides to living in a place like that. General day-to-day stress level is often lower, as there's little traffic to deal with, there's less background noise and most cost of living is lower (rent, mortgage, etc.)
The downsides are that some costs of living are higher (food at the grocery story is often slightly more expensive, and the selection of non-standard goods is less), dining and entertainment options are limited, and there's the stereotypical small-mindedness of small-town citizens that is very real. Small-towners are very often friendly and good people, but if you have political and/or social views that run anything other than to the very far right, it can be a frustrating situation.
People who grew up in small towns can also be not completely willing to accept somebody who didn't grow up there. The label of "new" often has very definitions in place like that (some folks in my hometown still call the one movie theater in town "the new theater," and it opened in the early '80s), and people can be slow to open their arms to new residents. And if you're single, it can be VERY difficult. Pickings can be very slim.
I doubt very seriously I could ever go back to living in a small town, but one of my brothers lives in one and he wouldn't have it any other way.