Rural Poverty Persistence
USDA | READ STORY

The persistence of poverty over time is a better indicator of a region's well-being than are poverty levels from any isolated moment in time. This map identifies counties in which 20% or more of the population has persistently been below the poverty line during the past 30 years.

Single Father Households

Pew Social Trends | READ STORY

Only 1% of households with minors were headed by single fathers in 1960. On the most recent report, this number has increased to 9%. Single fathers, so understood, span a variety of circumstances and living situations; just as an increasing number of roles are being played by women in the household, men are coming to perform more and more varied household functions.

Driving in the Country
Atlantic Cities | READ STORY

Although homicide rates are higher in metropolitan areas, this article by the Atlantic shows that the risk of suffering injury or death in an automobile accident is actually much higher in rural areas: in fact, you are twice as likely to die in a car accident in rural areas than you are in the city.

The Disappearance of the Rural
Daily Yonder | READ STORY

The Daily Yonder reports on a public opinion poll showing that there is general concern that small towns are disappearing, and that the rural culture kept alive thereby may be at risk. Rural populations are split with regard to a number of social and ideological issues, but converge on many others, including the central importance of retaining the rural way of life.

Food Insecurity
USDA | READ STORY

A food-insecure household, according to the USDA, is a household in which one or more members are from time to time unable to eat due to insufficient money or resources. The number of food-insecure households in the United States has increased during the past decade, rising from 10.7% in 2001 to 14.9% in 2011.

Why Healthcare Costs So Much
Carrington College | READ STORY

This infographic, provided by Carrington College, analyzes the causes and reasons behind the ever-increasing cost of healthcare in the United States, explicating the diverse and multivalent recipe of factors involved in the mix.

Community Happiness and Social Media
Atlantic Cities | READ STORY

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Michigan State University have developed algorithms by which millions of posts to the social networking website Twitter have been analyzed for their "happiness content." The result is a dataset showing the relative levels of happiness, or "wellbeing," for 1300 U.S. counties.