Rural Economy & Population

• Business & Industry
  While agriculture, forestry, and mining remain important sectors in some rural areas, service and retail industries have accounted for most job growth in rural America over the past few decades. ERS research on rural business and industry focuses on industrial trends that shape the job opportunities available to the rural labor force.
• Employment & Education
  ERS research in this area focuses on labor market conditions and educational attainment in rural America. Labor market conditions substantially impact both individual and community well-being. Important indicators of labor market conditions include the unemployment rate, employment growth, and earnings levels. Educational attainment is closely linked to labor market outcomes, as those who are more highly educated generally receive higher earnings and are less likely to be unemployed.
• Natural Amenities
  ERS has developed a program of research showing how landscape and climate have been shaping the geography of rural growth and decline.
• Population & Migration
  Nonmetro areas in some parts of the country have experienced population loss for decades. However, 2010-15 marks the first period with an estimated population loss for nonmetro America as a whole. Opportunities for population growth and economic expansion vary widely from one nonmetro county to the next, and new regional patterns of growth and decline have emerged in recent years.
• Rural Classifications
  ERS maintains key county classifications that measure rurality and assess the economic and social diversity of rural America beyond the metro/nonmetro dichotomy. The Rural-Urban Continuum Codes and Urban Influence Codes are part of a suite of data products for rural analysis available in this topic.
• Rural Poverty & Well-being
  ERS research in this area focuses on the economic, social, and demographic factors that affect the poverty status and incomes of rural residents and their participation in Federal assistance programs.