Understanding Rural America
Introduction
The well-being of America's rural people and places depends upon many things--the availability of good-paying jobs; access to critical services such as
education, health care, and communication; strong communities; and a healthy
natural environment to name a few. And while urban America is equally dependent
upon these things, the challenges to well-being look very different in rural
areas than in urban. Small-scale, low-density settlement patterns make it more
costly for communities and businesses to provide critical services. Declining
jobs and income in the natural resource-based industries that many rural areas
depend on force workers in those industries to find new ways to make a living.
Often those new ways are found only in the city. Low-skill, low-wage rural
manufacturing industries must find new ways to challenge the increasing number
of foreign competitors. Distance and remoteness impede many rural areas from
being connected to the urban centers of economic activity. Finally, changes in
the availability and use of natural resources located in rural areas affect the
people who earn a living from those resources, as well as those who derive
recreational and other benefits from them.
Some rural areas have met these challenges successfully, achieved some level
of prosperity, and are ready for the challenges of the future. Other rural areas
have met these challenges, but have little capacity to adapt further. Still
other rural areas have neither met the current challenges nor positioned
themselves for the future. Thus, concern for rural America, its conditions and
its future, is real. And, while rural America is a producer of critical goods
and services, the concerns go beyond economics. Rural America is also home to a
fifth of the Nation's people, keeper of natural amenities and national
treasures, and safeguard of a unique part of American culture, tradition, and
history.
Translating concern into effective policy for the betterment of rural
America is, however, no easy task. The challenge lies, at least partly, in the
complex nature of the subject. Rural America, like the rest of America, is
changing. Similarly, rural America, like the rest of America, is diverse. These
are simple, if not obvious, facts. Yet, in the course of policy debate and
formulation, those simple, obvious facts often get lost. In matters of policy,
it is tempting to think of rural America as unchanging and homogeneous, to think
of it as it once was or as it is now in only some places.
This report aims to provide objective information about the changes taking
place in and the diversity of rural America. Toward that end, the report looks
at change and diversity from several angles--its people and places, its economies
and industries, its concerns and future. The report begins by examining shifts
in rural employment, population, and well-being, continues by analyzing six
county types, and concludes by outlining key realities that effective rural
policy will need to recognize.
As with all generalizations, even the disaggregated analysis that follows
cannot capture every detail and individual difference. Still, it yields useful
information for understanding the complexity of rural America's conditions,
trends, needs, and prospects.
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Updated: February 6, 1997
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