Tag: state of rural

Season 5, Episode 6: State of Rural 2025

On this episode, Marnie Werner, Vice President of Research and Operations, interviews CRPD Senior Research, Kelly Asche, to discuss highlights from this year’s State of Rural report. The State of Rural is an annual report tracking various economic and demographic trends in rural Minnesota.

State of Rural 2025 – Presenting the highlights

Each year, the Center for Rural Policy and Development provides an update on various economic and demographic data pertaining to rural Minnesota. As policy discussions concerning the various regions of the state unfold, it is important to understand the past, present, and potential futures of rural regions. This report provides historical data points illustrating how ...

The State of Rural highlight – Earnings continue to grow

January 2025 By: Kelly Asche, Senior Research Every year, the Center for Rural Policy and Development publishes the “State of Rural,” a report that tracks various economic and demographic trends in rural Minnesota. The following is a highlight from that report, which will be published the week of January 13th, 2025. It’s common knowledge that ...
Girl writing

Disruptions in child care access show its importance to the economy

By Marnie Werner, Vice President, Research & Operations A lack of reliable child care was the single biggest problem for employees in America before the pandemic. Now, as parents head back to work, they will be looking for child care, whether it’s with their old provider or a new one, and that will drive up ...

Engagement, racial justice, and rural Minnesota

By Whitney Oachs, CRPD research intern Last summer the Center for Rural Policy reported a “sea change in engagement” after racial justice protests were held in rural communities across the state following the death of George Floyd. Though more attention has been paid to these protests in urban environments, towns as small as Grand Marais ...
pig looking thoughtful

Packing plant closures affecting farmers’ mental health

By Whitney Oachs, Research Intern As discussed in our recent 2020 State of Rural Report, most farmers were barely getting by before the onslaught of COVID-19. While agricultural land values have remained at historic highs, low commodity prices and increased costs of production have resulted in negative net income, contributing to declining mental health for ...
downtown Litchfield

2020 State of Rural Minnesota report

An economic and demographic update of rural Minnesota By Kelly Asche, Research Associate & Marnie Werner, Vice President, Research For a printable version of the report, click here. Each year, the Center for Rural Policy and Development provides a brief update on various economic and demographic data pertaining to rural Minnesota. As policy discussions concerning ...

Supporting the Decennial Census and American Community Survey

By: Kelly Asche, Research Associate There isn’t a week that goes by here at the Center where we don’t use U.S. Census information in some form. Its importance in creating our research and helping to develop good policy cannot be understated. If you were to quickly breeze through our research for this year, you would ...

The impacts of agriculture on employment and earnings

One economic issue getting a lot of attention is particularly associated with rural areas: agriculture. Global trade, relationships with countries such as China and Mexico, and agricultural commodity prices have a major impact on ag and farming due to the large quantity of commodity crops we export around the world. Prices for corn and soybeans ...