Lists addresses, telephone numbers, and contact persons for each state data center plus those in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Describes available rural data and services (mostly free): informational assistance, computer tapes and printouts, maps, assistance using data, and information on new products. (NEC)

Discusses service industries' role in developing economies of rural areas. Describes ways service industries generate employment and local income and blend with a local economy. Summarizes survey of contributions to local economies and what attracted them to their communities for 385 service firms in nonmetropolitan Wisconsin. Tables provide…

Survey information from 1,616 farm families in Wisconsin, Mississippi, and Tennessee was used to construct a viability ratio measuring a family's ability to meet its obligations from total income. Coupled with other farm characteristics, the ratio allows policymakers to see why some farms are viable and others are not. (JHZ)

Using measures sensitive to rural labor market conditions, determined that nearly a third of the rural labor force is underemployed--by being out of a job, working for low pay, or working too few hours. The current system of calculating unemployment rate seriously underestimates the extent of economic hardship in rural areas. (JHZ)

Whatever migration patterns evolve, changes in the age structure mean that rural communities in general can expect fairly stable elementary school population, reduced high school population, slower growth in new business and employment, and continued increase in the elderly population. (JHZ)