This report focuses on those people living in poverty in rural areas of the United States. To provide a better understanding of who these individuals are, the report describes their characteristics and examines how the rural poor are similar to and different from the urban poor. Despite the popular perception of concentrated African American poverty in the nation's inner cities, more than 44% of blacks living in nonmetropolitan areas were poor in 1987, compared to 33% of blacks living in central cities. In addition, nonmetropolitan whites and Hispanics are just as likely to be poor as their center city counterparts. However, the composition of the rural poor is significantly different from that of the urban poor. Unlike the central city poor, rural poor are more likely to be white, to live in families headed by two parents, to be concentrated in the South, and to work. In addition, while the proportion of adults who are poor is similar in both central city and rural areas, the rural poor are somewhat more likely to be elderly (authors).
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