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Understanding Rural America

Rural Change


Rural Well-Being

Some improvement, but gaps remain.

Many of the changes in rural America have been positive. Compared with the past, many of the conditions in rural areas have improved. Electricity, telephone service, and the highway system and the development they promoted are a few of the most visible improvements.

Rural families are also better housed today and more likely to own their own homes than in the past. Only 2 percent of full-time occupied housing in rural America was substandard (lacking complete plumbing facilities) in 1990. Fifty years ago, nearly 75 percent of rural homes failed this measure of adequacy. Crowding is also less of a problem for rural households. Today, only 2 percent of households live in a home with fewer rooms than the number of household members, down from 25 percent of households in 1940. The rate of home-ownership among rural households has also improved, increasing from one-half in 1940 to three-fourths today.

In a number of ways, rural areas have also gained ground on urban areas. High school completion rates, for example, have improved in rural areas and are now close to those found in urban areas.

Gaps remain, however. Real earnings per job, an indicator of the strength of the economy and its ability to provide good jobs for its educated youth, remain consistently and substantially lower in rural areas than in urban and declined by 6.5 percent from 1979 to 1989. Similarly, college completion rates reveal a rural challenge. Compared with urban areas, far fewer rural residents are completing the education that is increasingly necessary for success in today's economy. And increases in population subgroups prone to economic disadvantage--families headed by single mothers and minorities--mean that more people are at risk of falling behind.

Chart: The earnings gap between metro/nonmetro jobs persists and widens ...

Chart: ... as does the gap in college completion rates.

Underlying this overall picture are wide variations throughout rural America. The rural experience is very different from one part of the country to another. Some rural areas simply have not enjoyed many of the benefits of progress over the last 50 years. They have largely been left behind, still struggling with poverty, unemployment, inadequate infrastructure, and a lack of viable economic opportunities. Others, that have seen improvements, lack the resources and skills necessary to compete in the future economic environment. These, if they remain unprepared, will likely be left behind.

To understand the complexity of the challenge to rural America, one must understand the diversity of rural America.


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