Child poverty rates rise in rural America (Bush Country), study finds

Monday, July 19, 2004 at 07:49PM
TheSpook

The human faces of poverty for many Americans are the inner-city homeless who sleep on grates, beg on corners and line up, mornings and afternoons, at local parks for a cup of soup and a sandwich. But of the 50 counties with the highest child-poverty rates, 48 are in rural America. Compared with urban areas, unemployment is typically higher, education poorer and services severely limited because people are so spread out. One in five children in rural America lives below the poverty line. By contrast, the child-poverty rate in metropolitan areas is 16 percent. Just a few years ago, the rates were nearly the same. [more]

Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).