Category: Rural

Resource Category Topic Type
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
Rural Workers More Likely to Work Nontraditional Shifts
Workers in rural areas have historically worked at different times of the day compared to their counterparts in urban areas, including during less traditional work periods, such as in the early morning, afternoon, and evening hours. This brief presents a snapshot of the rural workforce around the clock.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Employment, Rural, Urban Publication
Rural Workers Would Benefit from Unemployment Insurance Modernization
Rural workers stand to benefit from the modernization of unemployment insurance (UI) to cover part-time workers, which is an opportunity for states under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Plan (ARRA). Rural workers are more likely to work part-time, and many states that do not provide UI benefits to part-time workers have higher than average proportions of rural residents.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Employment, Rural, Safety Net, Unemployment Publication
Rural Workers Would Benefit More Than Urban Workers from an Increase in the Federal Minimum Wage
While members of the U.S. Senate considered the first increase in minimum wage in a decade, the Carsey Institute released findings of a study showing that it would benefit rural, low-wage workers every bit as much, if not more, than workers in big cities.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Employment, Rural, Urban, Wages Publication
Rural Youth are More Likely to be Idle
Rural young adults, ages 18-24, are more likely to be idle not in school, the labor force, or the Armed Forces than their urban counterparts. Among rural high school dropouts and racial-ethnic minorities, rates of idleness are even more pronounced.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Education, Rural, Young Adults Publication
Seventy-eight Percent of Working Rural Families to Receive Full Making Work Pay Tax Credit
The Making Work Pay Tax Credit provides eligible U.S. workers with additional money in each paycheck throughout the year. The fact sheet shows that 78 percent of rural working families will receive the full amount of the credit, while an additional 10 percent of families will receive a partial credit due to low earnings or high earnings. These tax credits, along with the expansion to the Child Tax Credit, are an important financial boost to families in rural America, particularly low-income working families.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Employment, Family, Rural, Safety Net, Tax Publication
Students in Rural Schools Have Limited Access to Advanced Mathematics Courses
This Carsey brief reveals that students in rural areas and small towns have less access to higher-level mathematics courses than students in urban settings, which results in serious educational consequences, including lower scores on assessment tests and fewer qualified students entering science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) job pipelines.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Children, Education, Rural, Young Adults Publication
Subprime and Predatory Lending in Rural America: Mortgage lending practices that can trap low-income rural people
This brief examines predatory mortgage loans and the harmful impact they have on rural homeowners and their communities. The report finds that minorities and low-income people are more likely to fall victim to higher-cost loans. The brief includes recommendations for policy changes at the state and federal levels, as well as advice on identifying and avoiding predatory loans.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Family, Low Income, Rural Publication
Substance Abuse in Rural and Small Town America
Alcohol abuse exceeds illicit drug abuse in rural America and is a serious problem among rural youth, as highlighted here. The report also confirms that the abuse of stimulants, including methamphetamine, is high among certain rural populations, particularly among the rural unemployed.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Drugs, Rural, Substance Abuse, Urban, Young Adults Publication
TANF in Rural America: Informing Re-authorization
In 1996 welfare reform ushered in a new era in which cash assistance for poor parents became both temporary and conditional on activities to promote economic independence through work. Cash assistance from TANF relieves, but does not eliminate, poverty because benefit levels are far too low to lift families above the poverty threshold. These ameliorative effects are weaker in rural than urban areas. Over time, the positive impacts of TANF receipt have continued to decline. The authors assert that the necessity of re-authorizing TANF gives us an opportunity to reflect on its strengths and limitations. TANF is an important component of poor families' budgets. However, in its current form, it is insufficient; strengthening TANF would help alleviate some material hardship in the lives of America's neediest citizens. In order to adapt TANF to better support struggling families in a modern economy, the authors suggest that the TANF reauthorization keep America's rural poor in mind, acknowledge differences in ameliorative effects, re-establish the TANF Emergency Fund, reinvigorate the Contingency Fund, and reconsider TANF Supplemental Grants.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Family, Poverty, Rural, Safety Net Publication
The Long-Term Unemployed in the Wake of the Great Recession
Using the Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey, this brief outlines the demographic and economic characteristics of the long-term unemployed and compares them with their short-term unemployed counterparts. It also describes changes in the composition of the long-term unemployed since the start of the Great Recession.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Employment, Health Insurance, Rural, Unemployment, Urban Publication
The Opioid Crisis in Rural and Small Town America
Over the last two decades, opioid overdose deaths have increased over 400 percent, reaching 45,838 in 2016. Although the crisis is not disproportionately worse in rural than in urban America, opioid mortality rates have grown faster in rural areas, particularly in the Northeast and Midwest. Rural areas also face unique challenges in dealing with the crisis, including a smaller health care infrastructure than is available in more densely populated areas, community and family factors, and labor market stressors.
Demography Drugs, Rural, Substance Abuse, Urban Publication
The Unequal Distribution of Child Poverty: Highest Rates among Young Blacks and Children of Single Mothers in Rural America
Measuring by race, place, and family, this brief highlights poverty rates for two rural groups--young black children and children of single mothers--who each face rates around 50%.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Children, Poverty, Rural Publication
Three in Ten Rural and Urban Medicaid Recipients Affected by Potential Work Requirements
The Affordable Care Act in 2010 gave states the option to expand Medicaid access to adults with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Thus more able-bodied and working adults have become eligible for Medicaid. In addition, several states have petitioned the federal government to have the option to enforce work requirements for those receiving Medicaid in their state.1 Specific waiver requests vary by state, but could have broad implications for Medicaid recipients across the nation, and typically include a requirement of able-bodied, adult Medicaid recipients to complete a certain number of hours spent working, or in some kind of other approved activity, like job training or looking for work. Children under age 19, pregnant or recently postpartum women, people with disabilities, and sole caretakers of young children are typically excluded from these proposed work requirements.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Poverty, Rural, Safety Net, Urban Publication
U.S. Rural Soldiers Account for a Disproportionately High Share of Casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan
A study by the Carsey Institute found that among U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, those who are from rural America are dying at a higher rate than those soldiers who are from cities and suburbs. According to U.S. Department of Defense records, rural youth enlist in the military at a higher rate than urban and suburban youth and in all but eight states, soldiers from rural areas make up a disproportionately high share of the casualties.
Demography, Vulnerable Families Research Program Mortality, Rural, Young Adults Publication
Underemployment in Urban and Rural America, 2005-2012
Author Justin Young reports that underemployment (or involuntary part-time work) rates doubled during the second year of the recession, reaching roughly 6.5 percent in 2009. This increase was equally steep in both rural and urban places. By March of 2012, underemployment was slightly lower in rural places (4.8 percent) compared to urban places (5.3 percent).
Vulnerable Families Research Program Employment, Income, Rural, Urban Publication
Understanding Child Abuse in Rural and Urban America: Risk Factors and Maltreatment Substantiation
Using a large national sample of child maltreatment reports, this brief compares the outcomes of child maltreatment cases in rural versus urban places and identifies the characteristics associated with substantiation. Child abuse cases substantiated in rural and urban areas share many caregiver risk factors, such as drug and alcohol abuse, and many family stressors.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Children, Health, Rural, Urban Publication
Urban and Rural Children Experience Similar Rates of Low-Income and Poverty
Data in this brief shows that the percentages of children living in low-income areas and poverty over the past fifteen years in rural and urban America are converging.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Children, Low Income, Poverty, Rural, Urban Publication
Values and Religion in Rural America: Attitudes Toward Abortion and Same-Sex Relations
The rural vote is critical, but how do rural voters' views on issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage, and religion influence elections? This brief compares rural and urban views on these divisive issues and examines how much rural opinions vary within rural regions of the country.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Politics and Elections, Religion, Rural Publication
Voting and Attitudes Along the Red Rural–Blue Urban Continuum
Political commentary often divides the nation into two partisan zones, urban and rural, but new analysis demonstrates that the rural–urban gradient is a continuum, not a dichotomy. In this study of the 2018 congressional midterms, authors Kenneth Johnson and Dante Scala confirm their earlier analysis of the 2016 presidential election and demonstrate how voting patterns and political attitudes vary across the spectrum of urban and rural areas.
Demography Demography, Politics and Elections, Rural, Urban Publication