Who Lives in Rural America?

We’ve spent a lot of time and money in recent years to get better broadband for rural America, so I thought it would be of interest to look at who lives in rural America, based on data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency:

• Population: There are 81.7 million people living in rural areas, or 24.4% of the total population. 
• Age: There is a higher percentage of senior residents over 65 in rural areas, at 19.2%, compared with urban areas of 15.7%. A lot of the reason for this is the lower percentage of residents between the ages of 18 and 64 in rural areas, at 44.6%, compared to 49.7% in urban areas. This highlights one of the biggest issues for rural America—working-age people leave rural areas to find employment. Both rural and urban areas have 22% of the population under 18 years of age, but 5% of rural people leave to join the workforce.
• Income: Median household incomes are lower in rural America. 39.5% of rural households have a household income under $50,000, compared to 32.5% of urban households. Rural areas also have what FHFA calls income compression, meaning that there is not as much difference between the poorest and wealthiest in rural areas.