However, there was negligible improvement in rural job earnings. While the economy of rural America, in general, has improved, persistent pockets of intractable rural poverty remain. In general, poverty rates are higher in rural than in urban areas. Rural poverty is working poverty. Nearly two-thirds of the rural poor live in a family with at least one member working.
Child poverty is higher in rural areas.
Over half of rural children in female-headed households are in poverty. These challenges are particularly daunting in our nation's 600 persistent poverty counties. These pockets are located in the rural South, core Appalachia, the lower Rio Grande Valley, and on American Indian reservations. The 1990's rural population shifts are fascinating and significant, with major implications for rural public policy. During the 1990's, a significant rural population rebound occurred, totally reversing the rural outmigration of the 1980's, in general.