Rural Poverty Rate Is Increasing

According to a new report from the Daily Yonder (Rural Strategies' online news journal), the level of poverty in rural America has increased at a rate five times that of the poverty increase in metropolitan areas in the past five years.
 
The report highlights a trend of widening gaps between the quality of life of rural vs. metropolitan Americans. Other Daily Yonder analysis has shown that rural folks also experience higher rates of death, joblessness, and suicide, as well as earn lower incomes and suffer lower rate of voter participation when compared to their metropolitan counterparts.
 
Since 2003 the rural poverty rate jumped by 17 percent, while the metropolitan poverty rate climbed by about 3 percent. This increase in rural poverty reverses a trend from the 1990s when the gap between rural and metropolitan poverty rates decreased.
 
For the full story on the rise rural poverty, visit the Daily Yonder.