Economic Development - Rural and Urban (Omaha: homes, high school, incomes)

[Dave1215]

Interesting article in today's Omaha World Hearld regarding economic development statistics in Nebraska. They did an urban vs rural analysis and rural (less than 2,500 people by their definition) did better in most cases.

Here is a part of the article with some of the comparitive stats - as they say its counterintuitive to most discussions.

• Median household income in urban Nebraskadid not keep pace with inflation, declining by 7.7 percent. In contrast, incomes increased by 5.3 percent in rural areas

So spending power in rural Nebraska now exceeds that in urban areas by more than $1,000 per household, $47,793 versus $46,601. That's a reversal from the 2000 Census, when urban exceeded rural by more than $5,000.

• Real median home values went up nearly $21,000 in rural areas, double the increase seen in urban parts of the state.

The median home value remained higher in urban Nebraska: $123,700 compared with $101,100. But by percent change, growth was three times higher in rural than urban areas.

• Poverty rates diverged since the 2000 Census, when they were nearly identical in urban and rural Nebraska. While the rural poverty rate dropped less than a percentage point to 8.7 percent, the urban poverty rate increased by about 2.5 percentage points to more than 12 percent.

• The rate of homeownership gain in rural areas was twice that of urban parts. Nearly 80 percent of nonvacant rural Nebraska homes were owner-occupied during 2005-2007, compared with less than 65 percent in urban.

• Saunders and Cass Counties — both part of the Omaha metropolitan area but both considered largely rural— had the most favorable economic changes since 2000 of the 16 counties with new data released, Drozd said. He said they had median household incomes that rose faster than inflation since 2000.

• Education gains were greater among rural residents, too. In 2000, urban and rural residents age 25 and older had nearly identical high school graduation rates. Rural residents since have advanced by 4 percentage points, compared to the 2-percentage point gain among urbanites.

SOURCE: http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10509262