Save the Children created the Rural Child Well-Being dashboards to answer the question: how are children in Rural America doing? They do so by applying the Health Resources and Service Administration’s (HRSA) rural definition to publicly available data on a wide range of child well-being- topics. Unlike some commonly used rural definitions, which distinguish rural from non-rural areas at the county level, HRSA’s rural definition distinguishes rural from non-rural places at the community (census tract) level. As a result, these dashboards include rural communities, particularly in large counties in the West, that other rural data sources leave out.

What do the data in these dashboards reveal? Elementary and middle school students in rural America (grades 3-8) read a half of a grade level behind their non-rural peers, a gap that is symptomatic of the broad economic forces assailing more sparsely populated parts of the country. The loss of farms, factories, and local businesses has eroded the tax bases that sustain rural schools, while also compounding the stressors on rural families, including rising poverty, food insecurity, lack of access to childcare, and transportation costs that consume an ever-larger share of household budgets. These dashboards document those trends, offering a data-grounded look at family wellbeing across rural America. And while the story these numbers tell is often one of growing barriers, it is not a uniform one: resilience abounds, and the diversity of experience and outcomes across rural communities is an important part of the picture.

Explore Rural Child Well-being Dashboards

Key facts

• Rural children in grades three through eight were, on average, half a year behind their non-rural peers in reading and language arts in the 39 states for which nationally comparable test score data were available.
• In 10 states, rural children in grades three through eight were one grade level or more behind in math. On a positive note, math scores among rural children overall are improving.
• Nineteen percent of rural children under age 18 — nearly 2.6 million children — live in poverty. Rural children are 23% more likely to live in poverty than their non-rural counterparts.
• Rural families in the United States earn nearly $30,000 less per year than their non-rural counterparts
• Nationally, 40% of rural children are eligible for free and reduced-price meals at school and in 43 states, rural children are more likely to grow up food insecure. In Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, Arizona, Arkansas, and New Mexico half of rural students meet the eligibility criteria for free and reduced-price meals.
• Within a 30-minute drive, most rural children do not have access to a single childcare center, while non-rural children have access to nearly five centers.
• Rural households spend 28% of their income on transportation, which is more than they spend on housing. Transportation costs strongly influence what isolated rural families can access for their children.
• Housing is more affordable in rural America. Rural families spend 24% of their income on housing, non-rural families spend 27%. Housing affordability translates into fewer residential moves and greater stability in children’s lives.
• Rural communities face greater exposure to natural hazards.