Rural areas in the United States

[2][6] The United States Department of Health and Human Services has two agencies that define rural areas.

[2] CityLab defines rural areas by congressional district, based on census tracts and a machine-learning algorithm.

Since the 1940s and 1950s, the rural districts of the northern United States have largely been a stronghold for the Republican Party.

Despite being one of the most rural states in the nation, Vermont has a very heavy partisan lean in favor of the Democratic Party.

[12]States with the highest median household incomes in rural areas were Connecticut ($93,382) and New Jersey ($92,972) (not statistically different from each other).

[12] As of 2016, about 7 percent of homeless people in the United States live in rural areas, although some believe that this is an underestimate.

[14] A study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics in 2015 analyzed data on U.S. youth suicide rates from 1996 to 2010.

[15] Notwithstanding the economic and health challenges, a 2018 survey of rural adults found a majority felt they were better off financially than their parents at the same age.