Category: Rural

Resource Category Topic Type
Religion, Politics, and the Environment in Rural America
Reflecting the heterogeneous nature of rural America, rural Americans are divided primarily along religious lines on their perspectives of environmental conservation and climate change. And as rural voters and environmental issues become key issues in the upcoming presidential election, this religious divide presents a challenge to political candidates.
Community, Environment, and Climate Change Environment, Politics and Elections, Public Opinion, Religion, Rural Publication
Renters More Often Burdened by Housing Costs After Recession: Nearly Half of All Renters Spent Over 30 Percent of Income on Housing by 2010
This brief uses data from the 2007 and 2010 American Community Survey to document changes in the proportion of household income spent on rental costs (rent plus utilities) during the Great Recession, by region (Northeast, Midwest, South, and West) and place type (rural, suburban, or central city location).
Vulnerable Families Research Program Housing, Rural, Urban Publication
Rural Adolescents Are More Likely Than Their Urban Peers to Abuse Prescription Painkillers
U.S. media and popular culture historically portrayed drug abuse as an urban problem, but in recent years, there has been more media attention on rural drug issues. Part of this growing attention pertains to the growing epidemic of narcotic painkiller abuse in rural America. Although all areas of the country experienced increases in painkiller prescribing, abuse, and mortality over the past two decades, the increases have been most pronounced in small towns and rural areas.1 This rural drug epidemic requires immediate attention from policy makers and practitioners.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Drugs, Health, Rural, Substance Abuse, Young Adults Publication
Rural America and the South Have the Highest Percent of Veterans with Service-Related Disabilities
Veterans with service-related disabilities are concentrated in the American South and in rural places, this new fact sheet finds. Issued to commemorate Veterans Day (November 11), the report analyzes new data from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2008 American Community Survey, which released service-related disability data for the first time.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Health, Rural Publication
Rural America in the 21st Century: Perspectives from the Field (Report to the Rural Assembly)
Rural America in the twenty-first century must develop new relationships and new ways of doing things to ensure an economically prosperous, socially just, and environmentally healthy future. Tapping into the resourcefulness and creativity of rural people will be essential in addressing this challenge. However, they cannot do it alone. Rural communities need critical infrastructure, investment, capital, and services. The overlapping forces shaping rural America–demographic transitions, economic changes, the legacy of chronic underinvestment in community institutions, and environmental factors—present challenges and opportunities. With the voices and strategies of rural Americans in hand, the National Rural Assembly can now move forward toward this vision for a twenty-first century rural America.
Demography, Vulnerable Families Research Program Community, Demography, Economic Development, Environment, Rural Publication
Rural America Lost Population Over the Past Decade for the First Time in History
In this brief Carsey Senior Demographer Kenneth Johnson examines rural demographic trends between 2010 and 2020 using data from the 2020 Census. With fewer births, more deaths, and more people leaving than moving in, rural America experienced an overall population loss for the first time in history.
Demography Birth Rates, COVID-19, Demography, Fertility, Migration, Mortality, Rural Publication
Rural and Central City Residents with Multiple Children Likely to Be Hardest Hit by Proposed WIC Cuts
This brief uses data from the 2007 and 2010 Current Population Survey’s Annual Social and Economic Supplement to describe the distribution of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) receipt across the population and to detail place-based differences in receipt. WIC is a nutrition program that serves pregnant or postpartum women, infants, and children up to age 5 (who meet certain criteria) by providing them with nutrition education and checks or vouchers for food purchases. The proposed fiscal year 2012 funding is $733 million less for WIC than fiscal year 2011 levels, and far less than what is needed to serve all who are eligible. This brief describes the implications of the cuts to the WIC budget to help policymakers and service providers to better understand the population likely affected by cuts to WIC funding.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Children, Poverty, Rural, Safety Net, Urban Publication
Rural Areas Risk Being Overlooked in 2010 Census
This issue brief describes how the census is conducted in rural areas, identifies some of the most difficult rural areas to count, and highlights what organizations are doing to ensure a more accurate census count in rural America. It also points out that undercounting by the census can lead to communities not receiving a fair share of federal funding.
Demography Demography, Rural Publication
Rural Areas with Seasonal Homes Hit Hard by COVID-19
In this data snapshot, author Jess Carson finds that rural counties where at least 25 percent of the housing units are for seasonal use are hit especially hard by COVID-19 compared with urban and other kinds of rural counties.
Center for Social Policy in Practice, COVID-19 Community Development, COVID-19, Economic Development, Rural Publication
Rural Children and Those Residing in Central Cities Have Lower Rates of Health Insurance Coverage and are More Often Covered by Public Plans
This Carsey brief looks at the geographic distribution of health insurance for children. Based on data from the 2008 American Community Survey, it includes such findings as one in ten children are still uninsured, insurance rates vary considerably by geographic area, and rural children are most likely to depend on public plans for their health care.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Children, Health Insurance, Rural, Urban Publication
Rural Children Are More Likely to Live in Cohabiting-Couple Households
As cohabiting increases nationwide, new data show that the growing rate of children in these households is most pronounced in rural areas. This brief analyzes recent U.S. Census Bureau data to explore these trends and patterns.
Demography, Vulnerable Families Research Program Children, Demography, Housing, Rural, Young Adults Publication
Rural Children Increasingly Rely on Medicaid and State Child Health Insurance Programs for Medical Care
Despite a flurry of reports on health insurance coverage for children, virtually none of them have examined the unique situation of rural families where one-fifth of all the nation's poor children live. This brief takes an in-depth look at the health insurance programs, such as SCHIP and Medicaid, which rural children rely on for medical care.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Children, Health, Health Insurance, Poverty, Rural, Safety Net Publication
Rural Children Now Less Likely to Live in Married-Couple Families
The percentage of rural children living in married-couple families dropped to 68 percent in 2008, one percentage point below that of children in metropolitan areas. In 1990, 76 percent of rural children and 72 percent of metropolitan-area children were living in married-couple families. But while marriage declined in both areas in the 1990s, urban rates bottomed out at 68 percent in 1998. The share of rural children living in married-couple families plunged from 73 percent in 2000 to 68 percent in 2008.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Children, Family, Housing, Rural Publication
Rural Demographic Change in the New Century: Slower Growth, Increased Diversity
This brief examines rural demographic trends in the first decade of the twenty-first century using newly available data from the 2010 Census. The rural population grew by just 2.2 million between 2000 and 2010—a gain barely half as great as that during the 1990s. Population growth was particularly slow in farming and mining counties and sharply reduced in rural manufacturing counties.
Demography, Vulnerable Families Research Program Demography, Rural Publication
Rural Depopulation in a Rapidly Urbanizing America
This brief examines demographic trends in rural America, a region often overlooked in a nation dominated by urban interests. Yet, 46 million people live in rural areas that encompass 72 percent of the land area of the United States. “Rural America” is a simple term that describes a remarkably diverse collection of people and places.
Demography Community, Demography, Rural, Urban Publication
Rural Families Choose Home-Based Child Care for their Preschool-Aged Children
This policy brief examines who is taking care of preschoolers of employed mothers in rural America. While most rural families choose home-based child care (such as relatives or informal nonrelated care providers), formal care (such as in day care centers) has positive benefits to a child's development. The brief recommends that programs are needed that either make formal care more affordable and accessible in rural communities, or that train home-based care providers to provide quality care.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Child Care, Children, Education, Family, Rural Publication
Rural Families with a Child Abuse Report are More Likely Headed by a Single Parent and Endure Economic and Family Stress
This brief, which is based on data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, finds that rural families who have been reported to Child Protective Services are more likely than urban families to have financial difficulties and high family stress, as well as grow up in single-parent households. To effectively address these issues, the brief urges policy makers to look at the lack of accessible and adequate services for struggling rural families.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Children, Family, Health, Rural Publication
Rural Soldiers Continue to Account for Disproportionately High Share of U.S. Casualities in Iraq and Afghanistan
When the nation goes to war, all Americans are expected to make sacrifices. Today's rural Americans, however, have fewer job opportunities within their communities, and are joining the military at higher rates. In turn, rural communities are facing military losses in disproportionate numbers to their urban counterparts.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Mortality, Rural, Young Adults Publication
Rural Voting in the 2004 Election
Rural votes can often make the difference between what party controls Congress and who is living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. This Carsey fact sheet presents detailed patterns of rural voting by region and shows that these patterns are better explained by looking at demographic factors rather than simply by where people live.
Community, Environment, and Climate Change Politics and Elections, Rural Publication
Rural Workers Have Less Access to Paid Sick Days
This brief, using data from the 2008 National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW) survey, analyzes paid sick time rates of workers by place and type of work. Paid sick days provide job protection to workers and a steady paycheck when they need to care for themselves or family members. Paid sick days also help workers with more limited resources who cannot otherwise afford to take a day off. Authors Kristin Smith and Andrew Schaefer report that a greater proportion of rural workers than urban workers (both suburban and central-city) lack access to at least five paid sick days per year. Their analysis suggests that where one works matters, both geographically and by sector, and the quality of the job also matters. The rural disadvantage is particularly pronounced among rural private-sector workers and part-time workers, but even rural full-time workers have less access to paid sick days than their urban counterparts.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Employment, Family, Health, Rural Publication