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RURAL DEVELOPMENT RECONSIDERED: A PERSPECTIVE FROM THE SOUTH 



III. DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS IMPACTING SOUTHERN 



RURAL DEVELOPMENT 



THE STATE OF THE SOUTH TODAY 



As the U.S. economy reels from the end of the Cold War and global economic 

 restructuring of the past two decades, distressed rural areas of the South have been 

 placed in an increasingly vulnerable position. And, despite the robust economies of the 

 Sunbelt Metropolitan cities and coastal resort areas, these distressed rural areas of the 

 South are still the South's poorest counties. 



While growth is expected to continue in coastal corridors and major metropolitan areas 

 of the South, predictions for long neglected and seemingly forgotten rural communities 

 are bleak. 



National rural policy makers cannot afford to ignore the South, a region that includes 

 nearly half (45%) of the nation's rural population. 



Although 90% of the population growth from 1980-1990 in the United States occurred in 

 the South and the West, and 50% of this growth occurred in only three states(California, 

 Texas and Florida), distressed rural areas of America lost population, industry, and in 

 some instances, congressional seats and federal block grant funding tied to population 

 size. 



The 17 states designated by the Census Bureau which make up the South are more rural 

 than the rest of the country. Nearly 25M Southerners representing 30% of the South's 

 population live in "non metro" areas. By comparison, only 17M "non metro" residents live 

 in the Midwest, the next most rural region of the nation. 



The South is also the nation's poorest region with the highest incidence of poverty in rural 

 areas. According to the USDA, 223 of the 242 non metropolitan "persistent poverty" 

 counties are in the South. Even more startling is the fact that these counties have 

 reported consistently high poverty rates for four decades. 



Southern poverty is pervasive and severe. Over half of the Southern states still fall below 

 80% of the U.S. per capita income. Eight of the nation's top ten highest poverty states 

 are in the South. 



In 1990, there were more people living in poverty in both "non metro" rural (20%) and 

 "metro" (13.9%) areas of the South than in any other region in the country. This is 

 particularly true for poor children of African American single family households, 78% of 

 whom live in the South. 



Levels of poverty in "severely distressed" parts of the South, such as Appalachia, have 

 risen to heights that now defy previous measures. People's income patterns are not only 



