A Summary for Educators. A Summary for Educators. The discussion considers the recent growth in rural poverty and presents a profile of the rural poor. It also reports evidence about possible causes of rural poverty and interprets possible meanings for teachers and administrators.
Nonmetropolitan areas comprise everything else.
The advantage of this definition is that it is commonly used by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. Many observers predicted better times. In the 1980s hopes for better times dimmed. Studies showed that rising poverty and population loss were once again general features of rural life. Rural poverty in the 1980s also seemed to be more deep-seated than urban poverty.