Poverty in Nonmetropolitan America: Impacts of Industrial,Employment, and Family Structure Variables

Abstract Poverty is more extensive and more severe in nonmetropolitan areas than in metropolitan areas. Here we maintain that the extensive industrial and economic transformations occurring in rural areas have resulted in patterns contributing to these high poverty levels. These transformations, which include an increase in service‐sector employment, in many ways mirror the economic changes that have occurred in the inner city. We maintain that Wilson's model of the inner‐city underclass can be useful in understanding some poverty trends in nonmetropolitan areas. To test the Wilson model, we analyze 1990 census data. The data generally support the model and indicate that the industrial transformation of rural areas leads to changes in the gender structure of the labor force, and to a more unbalanced sex ratio. These changes, in turn, result in adjustments to family structure, including an increase in the percentage of female‐headed households. This process results in higher poverty levels.