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A recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture found working-age rural residents die from natural causes at a higher rate than their urban counterparts. And that gap has widened over the years.
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Despite the fact that more women are going into veterinary medicine than ever before, some female practitioners in rural areas still face discrimination and pay gaps — problems experts say the industry will need to overcome to fill a shortage of animal care in those communities.
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Auctions — a marketplace for knick knacks, farm land and everything in between — are often also gathering events for rural communities. That’s changing as more auctions go online.
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The consumer price index is widely used by Americans to determine inflation, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics only surveys American counties that include a metro or micropolitan area.
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The child care gap across the country is more than 30%, meaning the need for quality child care far outweighs the supply — and it's worse in rural areas.
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Most states where more than 20% of the population is rural don't have laws requiring some kind of paid sick or general paid time off. A federal COVID relief package temporarily required a minimum of two weeks paid sick leave, but people in rural areas have been left in the lurch since that policy expired at the end of 2020.
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A new report from the USDA shows that rural areas are continuing to see growth among people over 65 while the working age population continues to decline.
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The national battle against abortion has reached small local governments. Towns in Nebraska and Texas have banned abortion within their borders, even if they don’t have a clinic. But in one community, that effort could interrupt abortion access for the entire region.
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COVID relief money was supposed to be a lifeline for small towns recovering from the pandemic, but some found the paperwork too daunting and missed on on the funds.
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Air pollution has traditionally been measured by the size of particles, which tend to be larger in urban areas than in rural ones. But a new study from the University of Illinois suggests that the toxicity of air in rural areas is just as bad as in urban ones.