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RURAL DEVELOPMENT RECONSIDERED: A PERSPECTIVE FROM THE SOUTH 



For those who remain in predominantly low wage rural communities, the provision of 

 medical, educational, and social services to sparse and declining populations will become 

 as costly as providing the same services to inner city populations. The "rural 

 underserved" may rival the "urban underserved." 



The consequences for rural communities that are suffering declining populations and 

 major economic shifts to low paying service industry jobs are being felt throughout the 

 Corn Belt, Great Plains, Mississippi Delta, Appalachian Coal fields and mining areas of 

 the West. Almost everywhere, rural counties that depended on agriculture are losing 

 population, and only 20% of all rural employment is any longer directly linked to 

 agriculture. 



A true look at the changing demographics demands a change in traditionally held views 

 of rural America. 



Rural is no longer equivalent to farming. Poverty rates in rural areas now rival those in 

 central cities. General and persistent poverty rates among African Americans, Native 

 Americans, and Appalachian Whites are even higher in rural areas than in inner cities. 

 In 15 Appalachian counties, rates of child poverty are higher than 46.6%, a rate 

 equivalent to that of the City of Detroit's, reported to be the highest of any American city. 



More than half of all the rural poor live in the South. Outside of the South, nearly all of 

 the rural poor is White. In addition, most rural poor Blacks or Whites live in families 

 headed by two parents , and most families contain at least one worker. The elderly 

 comprise an even larger share of the rural poor than the urban poor. 



For the remainder of this century, efforts to find solutions to the problems of rural poverty 

 must respond to major sweeping trends in population growth, composition, and other 

 demographic factors. But large and significant regional differences will demand different 

 sensitivities and strategies. 



The consequences of trends left unmanaged will mean the end of viable communities in 

 rural America. 



