I think it's true, that those who live in the hinterlands, and are disconnected with Jewish life and Jewish community more broadly in the diaspora and in Israel, are indeed unlikely to marry another Jewish person. It stands to reason. The less one socializes with Jews, the less one is likely to marry a Jew. The issue is this disconnection with Jews in the first place, not the logical result of outmarriage which follows.

In our parents' generation, Jews living in very small communities -- and there were many, being small businesspersons, at that time -- would attend university or otherwise make their way to a major centre, to meet more Jewish people. But that generation was socialized as Jews. Today's generation, living in the hinterlands, is very much assimilated, and its Jewish identity is quite notional. I think intermarriage, in such instances, is simply a logical conclusion.