The Changing Spatial Concentration of America’s Rural Poor Population

From the National Poverty Center, researchers in this working paper review the trends surrounding concentrated poverty in rural areas. In the 1990s, the rural (nonmetro) poverty rates decreased faster than metro rates and the percentage of the rural population living in extremely poor counties decreased by over 40 percent. However, it was found that children residing in rural areas, especially minority children, experience poverty rates above the national averages.