The structure of nonmetro employment has become increasingly diverse and decreasingly agricultural. The precise policy implications of these shifts are not self-evident, but the increasingly nonagricultural character of the rural economy is at the heart of the population turnaround. (Author/KR)

Examines and explains unexpected population trends since 1970: substantial rural and small-town growth, regional shifts to the South and West, lower birth rates, increased life expectancy, smaller household size, and population growth from immigration. Illustrates how demographic events offer classic examples of the difficulty of predicting human…

A quarter of nonmetro counties lost population in the 1990s, but population loss was not related to poverty rate or low educational levels, perhaps because low-skill workers can no longer expect better wages in urban areas. Population loss was related to low population density and remoteness (which decrease access to services), lack of natural…

Objectives of the study begun in 1960 were (1) to determine the nature and extent of socioeconomic and attitudinal differences between French and non-French ethnic groups in rural Louisiana, giving particular attention to education, income and employment, migration, levels of living, and social participation and (2) to note implications of the…

Natural resource and poverty relationships are regionally specific and are associated with particular segments of the nation's population, but have no overall direct causal tie. Although employment in natural-resource-based industries in rural areas accounts for only 16% of all rural employment nationally, these industries continue to make…