This research provides rural communities with evidence-based information to help them consider the challenges and opportunities resulting from their changing population.

Rural population change is volatile and often unpredictable. The direction of rural-urban migration switches from decade to decade, many rural communities are dramatically aging, and the rural population`s ethnic composition is changing rapidly because if the arrival of international migrants.
In 1970, for the first time in over 100 years, rural communities grew faster than their urban counterparts. Since then, the direction of rural-urban migration and population growth has switched back and forth in largely unpredictable ways. Similarly, in 1990, for the first time in U.S. history, rural areas outside of the southwest received direct migration from abroad. The size and composition of rural populations affect the prospects for economic development, the sufficiency of rural public services, social relationships and civic engagement. Rural communities need trusted information to assist in adapting to change and planning for the future. These trends affect all rural communities.

The multi-state project which this research contributes to has developed a series of policy and issue briefs to summarize pertinent aspects of rural population change and identify how these changes affect local communities and public policy. These policy and issue briefs have been posted on websites at the participating universities on web sites of the four regional rural development centers and on the web site of the Rural Sociological Society. Regional policy briefings were arranged by the regional centers in each region in addition to two Washington DC briefings for congressional staffs agency personnel and non governmental organizations. Two members of the multi state committee have also testified about rural population change before congress.

This research has become an important part of the supporting information that is being considered during the reauthorization of the U.S. Farm Bill. It has also informed state-level rural development policy.

Rural Population Change

Polson Institute for Global Development

• William Kandel (Economic Research Service USDA)
• Kenneth Johnson (Loyala University)
• Abnabel Kirchner (Washington State University)
• Helen Berry (Utah State University)
• Alex Vias (University of Connecticut)
• Peter Nelson (Middlebury College)
• Marlene Lee (University of Wisconsin)
• Richard Rathge (North Dakota State University)
• Gundars Rudzitis (University of Idaho)
• Christiane Von Reichert (University of Montana)