Rural communities collectively contribute $2.2 trillion to the overall US GDP. However, rural America is often characterized as a peripheral part of the national economy. In response, experts from the McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility generated a study to highlight the “massive opportunities” generated by rural areas and smaller towns.
What Exactly Is Rural America?
While most people dub rural America with terms like “flyover country” and “small-town America,” the study explained that the concept involves “a vast array of geographies, economies and cultures.” Furthermore, the McKinsey experts noted that these communities are “large, diverse, dynamic, and full of opportunity.”
Through cluster analysis, McKinsey came up with six archetypes to classify rural America:
- Agricultural powerhouses: Moderate-growth communities that have an agricultural focus and a stable economy.
- Manufacturing workshops: Regions strengthened by higher-than-average labor participation and lower unemployment. They come into categories; deindustrializing counties are located mainly in the Rust Belt, while re-shoring counties can be found in the South.
- Migration magnets: These consist of exburbs near MSAs or tourism hubs with generally positive in-migration.
- Remote regions: Home to small and midsize communities, these regions tend to offer lower industrial specialization in economic output. They are also more geographically isolated.
- Resource-rich regions: These geographic locations include remote communities where resource extraction (such as quarrying, mining and oil and gas removal) is the primary economic specialization.
- Middle America: This represents mid-to-large communities without major industry specializations or specific characteristics involved with the other archetypes. However, these regions tend to have higher-than-average economic outcomes.
Recommended Economic Strategies
The McKinsey authors suggested various approaches to improve economic development and mobility across rural communities.
- Partnerships to support entrepreneurs and start-ups in specialized or high-growth industries
- New capital investments in anchor institutions (such as universities and hospitals) to support local business and attract new industries
- Implementation of postsecondary education preparation to mitigate learning gaps and to prepare students for careers ranging from information technology to nursing
- Creation and maintenance of targeted workforce training to meet employment demand in areas including agriculture, mining and manufacturing, as well as to attract other growth industries
- Improve access to healthcare to help support residents’ physical and emotional well-being
- Initiate and maintain complementary, place-based programs through the cradle-to-career framework
The McKinsey experts concluded their study by pointing out that rural America is more than peripheral to the national economy. Applying the above-mentioned approaches to these regions provides the opportunity “to foster economic prosperity and improve well-being across the diverse communities that make up rural America.”
#Rural #America #Hidden #Economic #Secret