Resource Room
This Resource Room synthesizes the research of my clients by topic: immigration, marriage and family, urban policy, workforce development, incarceration, housing, welfare reform, health and mental health, transition to adulthood, Earned Income Tax Credit, education, public safety net, child welfare, etc.
In addition to a link to the studies my clients and I have produced, I'll occasionally offer a running narrative of the common themes and facts that emerge from across the various studies. Below is a review of what we know on rural America, its poverty, its unique challenges and strengths, and its efforts to adapt to a changing landscape.
Rural Poverty
Approximately 7.3 million rural Americans were poor in 2005, or 15.1% of the rural population. In contrast, 12.5% of individuals in urban areas were poor.
Many might find this surprising, given the media images of inner-city poverty. And in fact, inner-city poverty is higher. However, urban areas also include the suburbs, which have typically lower poverty rates. The 12.5% urban poverty rate averages poverty rates across both suburbs and inner cities.
Merely doing a head count of those in poverty, however, misses important distinctions, namely that the depth and severity of poverty is consistently greater in nonmetro areas.
Read more: Beyond Poverty Rates: Why Depth and Severity of Poverty Matter When Comparing Rural and Urban Poverty (Perspectives, vol. 1, no. 2).
Why is poverty more persistent in rural America?
Poverty is deeper and more persistent in rural areas for a variety of reasons:
- Rural areas are more isolated, which dissuades businesses from locating
- Their economies are more limited, and often dictated by their location
- There is less mobility; rural families move less often, and when they do, they must move greater distances to find more diverse opportunities.
- Public and community organizations operate differently, and there are fewer social supports in general
- Social norms can be both supportive and onerous (reputations often precede in small communities)
- Racial and ethnic barriers often have longer and more enduring histories (e.g., the Delta and American Indian reservations)
- Rural residents tend to have less education
Read more: Perspectives, vol. 1, no. 1 (entire issue): Historical trends and key concepts and definitions for understanding rural poverty
See also volume 1, no. 3 (entire issue), which examines a wrinkle in poverty estimates: adjusting for cost of living. Income goes farther in rural areas but poverty measures do not factor in cost of living.
See also, vol. 1, no. 2, Addressing Person and Place to Alleviate Rural Poverty, which argues that improving labor market characteristics may be more effective in alleviating poverty than focusing on individual characteristics, such as education or single parenthood.
How Rural Poverty and Policy Are Shaped by Place (vol. 2, no. 1)
This seminal article by Rebecca Blank outlines five important characteristics that define rural poverty: the natural environment, economic structure, public and community institutions, social norms, and demographic characteristics.
See also, What We Know about the Causes of Rural Poverty (vol. 2, no. 1)
The Challenges of Rural Poverty examines the interplay of personal and place characteristics in creating poverty.
The Defining Characteristics of Regional Poverty (Perspectives vol 2, no. 3)
Leading USDA researchers Calvin Beale and John Cromartie document regional characteristics that contribute to high poverty in rural areas. High-poverty rural counties with large populations of Native Americans, for example, have extremely high male unemployment, while high-poverty rural counties with larger populations of Hispanics have more residents who lack a solid command of English and have less education. High-poverty rural counties with more African Americans tend to have higher rates of single mothers, while high-poverty rural counties in the southern highlands (mainly poor whites) have higher rates of disability and lower education.
Complex Causes of Rural Poverty in the Northwest (Perspectives vol 3, no. 1)
The authors outline the area's unique characteristics and offer policies to address poverty in the region.
Poverty in the Rural West (Perspectives vol 3, no. 1)
The author examines the unique characteristics of poverty in the rural West, with its large Hispanic immigrant and Native American populations, and the implications of these distinctions for antipoverty policies.
Poverty among Native Americans (Perspectives, vol. 1, no. 4)
Also: Residential and Household Poverty on the Wind River Indian Reservation
What to do about rural poverty?
Each of the above articles offers a variety of proposals to address rural poverty, but here's three from a recent brief by Leif Jensen, "At the Razor's Edge: Building Hope for America's Rural Poor"
- Rural governments, whether at the town or county level, should collaborate to pool resources and knowledge and build regional alliances that support innovative economic development activities.
- Improving the availability of affordable and quality child care and transportation networks is important in reducing barriers to employment.
- Attention should be focused on maintaining the social safety net for elders, the disabled, those between jobs, and others who cannot fend for themselves.
Beyond Poverty: Rural Economic Development
Of course, rural policy spans more than just poverty. Below are some articles that focus on issues central to the changing rural landscape, with a focus on economic development. Economic development is imperative if rural areas are to adapt to the changing economy. Where once "rural" meant farming, mining, or timber, today rural America is more often a far-flung exurb or an economy dependent on tourism, sun birds, or small manufacturing drawing new immigrants. If economic development is to be successful, the following articles and briefs argue, they must adapt to their changing demographics and economies by:
- Pooling resources and ideas with other communities
- Fostering an entrepreneurial spirit and infrastructure (RSS listening sessions)
- Involving the entire community in plans and development
- Bolstering education
- Economic sectoral or cluster strategies focus investments in promising companies with clear growth potential. In contrast to a more generic approach that focuses on companies' general needs for capital, access to expanding markets, or an able workforce, sectoral strategies bring together governments and corporate and labor leaders to identify the tailored needs of companies and workers
Read more:
- The Changing Face of Rural America
Outlines the changing face of rural America, with some surprising findings, especially for families. Women, for example, are more often in the workforce today, and commutes to work for rural families more often resemble those of city dwellers./li>
- Tourism and Amenity-Based Development in Rural Communities
This brief offers caution to rural areas in courting tourism and other recreation-centered industry.
- Competition, Cooperation, and Local Government
This brief reviews offers pros and cons of having more local control for rural areas.
- Catalytic Community Development
This brief offers an innovative look at economic development, centered on building strong, inclusive communities.
- Community Emergency Response Teams
This brief examines how these local emergency response teams might be used as a catalyst to community and economic development.
- The Hidden Costs of Hurricane Katrina
Economic development is no more important than after a natural disaster the size of Hurricane Katrina. This brief shows how the focus on New Orleans misses a huge segment of the population in Katrina's path, and how rural areas often have a steeper hill to climb to recovery.
- Responding to the Complex Causes of Poverty in the Northwest (Perspectives vol. 3, no. 1)
This article discusses sectoral strategies, among others, for economic development.
Education in Rural America
With the changing labor market, education is taking on added importance in rural areas. Rural school districts, often hard-pressed for cash, might find it heartening to know that student expenditures, school size and the like are less important to school success among rural eighth graders than are family characteristics, such as family structure, income, interaction with teachers, attitudes toward school, and other similar factors. In fact, family characteristics have from 5 to 10 as much impact as school characteristics on reading and math scores of rural eighth graders. Interventions to impress upon families the importance of education might go far in increasing the education levels of rural residentsone of several factors that also lower the risk of poverty.
Read more: Improving Rural Educational Attainment
Welfare Reform in Rural America
Employment
Immigration to Rural Areas
The population of nonmetro America (rural) grew 2.2% between 2000 and 2005, all of it the result of international immigration. For more, see Rural America at a Glance.
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This study documents the significant impact that immigration has on rural towns and counties. Given the small size of many rural towns, an influx of immigrants may be felt more keenly. However, they also can reinvigorate dying towns.
- Op-ed: Rural Immigration Can Work
Philadelphia Inquirer, October 6, 2006
Based on the above study, New Immigrant Settlements in Rural America:
- (An excerpt...) Many have correctly argued that immigrants burden local services, especially schools. But another way of looking at the "burden" is as an investment. Reopening shuttered schools, closed in waves of district consolidations, and recruiting new teachers can reinvigorate a slumping economy...
- In fact, during the 1990s, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Hispanics alone accounted for more than one-quarter of the population growth in rural areas. They moved to rural areas in all parts of the country, but particularly in the South, Southeast, and Midwest, attracted by, if not outright recruited for, jobs in agriculture, meatpacking and manufacturing.
Additional Resources
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