Throughout history small town America has been the way of life for many American and is the picture of America. However, living in small town America with a white picket fence, a large yard, and knowing all your neighbors is in jeopardy. It is becoming harder and harder to be able to make a well-off life in rural America. Without a change whether through society or through the government life in small town America is at risk because poverty is taking it over.
“The total population in rural counties stood at 46.2 million in July 2015, representing 14 percent of U.S. residence in 72 percent of the Nation’s land area” (Rural America At A Glance 2016). In 2015, the deciding income level if a person considered poor had a cash income level below $12,082. That is equivalent to about a $1,000 per month a person makes. The national poverty rate stands at about 14.7% of Americans, but the percentage of people in poverty in non-metro areas in around 17.2% compared to those in metro areas around 14.3%. That is a 3% difference between the two geographical areas. Although throughout history, there has always been this great difference, after the 2008 recession, the difference is on an incline again.
Child poverty has one of the biggest issues facing rural America. Children are dependent on their parents and what their parents are able can give them. Thus when parents are not making a great deal, children are affected. Once again children in rural areas have always been statistically in poverty more than children in metro areas. However, in 2012 the difference reached their highest level; the nonmetro poverty rate stood at 26.7% which was 4% higher than metro children. In recent years, the level has decreased to 24.3%, which accounts for almost 1 in 4 children in rural areas live in poverty. There are also many cases in which areas suffer from persistent poverty rates of 20% or more for a great length of time. In total there are 708 counties that suffer from persistent poverty, of those 558 (about 80%) of these counties are in rural areas (Rural poverty & well-being 2016).
One of the hardest parts of living in rural areas is the lack of high-paying, stable jobs. Many of the industries that are located in rural areas are goods production based in the farming, forestry, fishing, and mining industries. In total, this accounts for about 11% of total earnings. Manufacturing is another huge industry that people in rural areas are making up nearly 15% of total earnings in rural counties. However, the greatest difference between rural and urban jobs are in the recreation industry. Urban areas have greater growth in this area and may be the reason why many youths are moving to urban areas. Of the 3,141 in the 585 are nonspecialized, 391 farming- dependent, 183 mining-dependent, 351 manufacturing-dependent, 238 federal-state government-dependent, and 228 recreational-dependent. All 1,976 of those counties are in rural areas (Rural America At A Glance 2016).
With such labor driven industries income plays a major part of the issue is the income difference. In 2012, the median annual income of a household in a non-metro area was $41,198. There has been a steady decrease in the annual median income since 2007. In comparison, median incomes in metro areas stand at 53,988 and have risen slightly in those same five years (Rural poverty & well-being 2016). One of the main issues with these statistics is it only calculates those that are employed. In rural America, unemployment is greater than in urban areas (Rural America At A Glance 2016).
There are other issues that people in rural areas face. There is a lack of affordable, high-quality childcare in rural areas. There is a low population density, therefore, creating a higher cost for services. In rural areas, there also may not be many child care providers. Health care is another major issue that people in rural communities. They are under serve and rely heavily on physicians, but there are not many in these areas. People also lack the proper health insurance need to receive high-quality health care. Transportation is one of the biggest issues that people in rural areas face. It is needed to get necessary services, to get to jobs, to get children to daycare, and other vital activities. In many rural areas, there is little to no public transportation to help people get where they need to go. Therefore if a person does not have another transportation option, it makes it harder to live a well-off life (Rural America Welfare Reform 1999).
Rural America is slowly starting to fall into the waste side because of many economic issues that they face. It is becoming easier for people to live in cities because they tend to have less financial issues. People in rural areas also face many other nonfinancial issues that may prevent them from having the life that they want to live. If there are not any significant changes, rural America will be a place that no one wants to live.
Resources
Rural america welfare reform: An overview assessment. (1999). Rural Policy Research Institute.
Rural poverty & well-being. (2016, September 14). Retrieved May 4, 2017, from United States Department of Agriculture website: https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/ rural-poverty-well-being/income/.
United States Department of Agriculture, Rural America at a Glance, Misc. Doc. (2016).