Poverty is frequently conceptualized as an attribute of either people or places. Yet residential movement of poor people can redistribute poverty across places, affecting and reshaping the spatial concentration of economic disadvantage. In this article, we utilize 1995 to 2000 county-to-county migration data from the 2000 United States decennial…

The concept of the "food desert", an area with limited access to retail food stores, has increasingly been used within social scientific and public health research to explore the dimensions of spatial inequality and community well-being. While research has demonstrated that food deserts are frequently characterized by higher levels of…

The purpose of this research was to explore and explain the role housing plays in rural community vitality. Community vitality refers to economic strength and social well-being. In spring 2002 we collected primary interview data from informants in 134 small rural communities in nine north-central states and identified related secondary data from…

In the 1990s, studies have documented widespread growth of immigrants in U.S. communities not known as common destinations in the past. This trend has fueled population growth in some nonmetropolitan areas and offset population decline in other areas. In this paper, we examine the implications of recent foreign born in-migration for rural America.…

This paper documents changing patterns of concentrated poverty in nonmetro areas. Data from the Decennial U.S. Census Summary Files show that poverty rates--both overall and for children--declined more rapidly in nonmetro than metro counties in the 1990s. The 1990s also brought large reductions in the number of high-poverty nonmetro counties and…

This paper examines patterns of annexation, including municipal "underbounding," in nonmetropolitan towns in the South; that is, whether blacks living adjacent to municipalities are systematically excluded from incorporation. Annexation--or the lack of annexation--can be a political tool used by municipal leaders to exclude disadvantaged or…

Using samples of census data from the university of Minnesota Population Center's "Integrated Public Use Microdata Series" (IPUMS), we describe trends in African-American migration to the South across recent decades, and explore the applicability of the concept of "return migration" to various demographic patterns. Our findings suggest that the…

Examines the contribution of various-sized places and rural areas to aggregate United States and nonmetropolitan change from 1950 to 1980 using decennial census data. Shows that rural areas were growing faster than urban areas during the 1970s, accounting for over 80 percent of aggregate nonmetropolitan change. (NEC)

Found a divergence of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan fertility rates in the 1970-80 decade but renewed convergence since 1980. Metro-nonmetro differences widened in that nonmetro women 20-24 years of age had higher rates of first and second births but also in that metro women over 30 years of age had higher rates of first and second births. (KS)

In 1980, residence in the "Black Belt" of the South depressed earnings for Blacks and Whites about equally. Census data did not support the hypothesis that Blacks would be penalized more in the Black Belt than in the rest of the South. Contains 37 references. (Author/SV)

Comparisons of the demographic and household characteristics of the rural and village white population of Walton County, Florida, in 1885 show that rural households were more often extended, while village households were more likely to contain boarders or servants. In addition, rural households contained more children than village households.…

Revised version of a paper presented at the 1971 annual meetings of the Rural Sociological Society in Denver. (FF)

In 1985, poverty rates in Texas nonmetro areas were 41 percent for Latinos and 53 percent for Blacks, compared to 27 percent for both groups in Texas metropolitan areas. Individual, household, and structural factors were related differently to poverty status among the ethnic/residence groups. Contains 62 references. (SV)

Analysis of census data indicates that earnings inequality among full-time workers increased in the 1980s. Compared to metropolitan areas, nonmetro economic inequality was greater and was explained better by both neoclassical and restructuring frameworks. Gender and college education accounted for far more earnings inequality than other sources…