Rural Revitalization – Finally The majority of the US population that lives in urban and suburban communities has been enjoying the country’s renewed prosperity for a number of years. Rural America, however, has been the last major segment of the population and US geography to experience this renewal, the first signs of which didn’t appear until approximately 2014. According to a 2016 report from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), rural unemployment decreased as employment increased through the first half of 2016, but not as well as metro counties.

More Room for Improvement Despite improvements in employment and unemployment, non-metro counties have considerably lower median annual earnings and a higher poverty rate than metro counties. Clearly, Rural America has not rebounded from the Recession as well as urban and suburban America, which impacts not only business, jobs and earnings growth, but also Rural Americans’ consumer shopping habits. This Special Report from THE MEDIACENTER will enlighten you about the most-distant viewers of your TV station and what you and your clients need to know to reach this audience and attract a maximum amount of their retail dollars.

Rural America Today As of July 2015, the population of the non-metro counties in the US was 46.2 million, which is just 14% of the total US population; however, they live on 72% of the total US land area. Only 6% of non-metro county employment is in agriculture while manufacturing accounts for 11%, nearly twice manufacturing’s share in metro counties, at 6%. Mining employment generated the largest rural median earnings during 2015, or $60,500, with manufacturing a distant second, at $37,000. Agriculture and related employment was just $28,000.

Manufacturing Jobs Are Unlikely to Return Some manufacturing jobs are returning to the US from other countries and President Trump has made returning more manufacturing jobs a cornerstone of his economic policies. Improvements in productivity through automation has been the primary cause of the decrease of 7 million factory jobs since 1979’s peak of 19.5 million, not jobs being moved overseas. Despite the significant loss of manufacturing jobs, manufacturing output, or productivity, increased 17.6% from 2006 to 2013. Automation allows fewer workers to produce more, and that process began decades ago.

Between a Rock and a Hard Space During the period 1992–2014, net US establishment or business creation decreased in counties with less than 100,000 population from 32% to 0% while net job creation decreased from 27% to 9%. Rural as well as urban workers will require new and/or additional training to operate manufacturing processes that will be using even more automation in the form of robotics and artificial intelligence. Without new manufacturing facilities being established in non-metro counties, even these newly trained workers would have difficulty finding jobs.

Rural America Is Older As younger adults and families migrated from Rural to Urban America, as a result of the recession, the percentage of adults 65+ in Rural America increased dramatically from 2010 to 2015.   During 2010, 12.5% of adults 65+ lived in urban counties and 13.6% in rural counties. By 2015, the shares were 13.4% and 17.0%, respectively, a 25% increase in Rural America. Rural Americans 65+ also had a lower median household income than their urban counterparts, $37,310 vs. $39,202, for the period 2011–2015, thus reducing their available consumer dollars.

A Lack of Public Transportation Only 0.5% of rural Americans used public transportation during 2014 to commute to work, compared to 6.2% of urban Americans and 5.2% of all Americans. Only 4% of rural households used public transportation during 2014, compared to 31% of urban and 15% of suburban households. Only 27% of grocery stores are accessible by public transportation in Rural America. Other necessary services, such as health care and personal banking, are only accessible by public transportation for 25% of rural Americans.

The Online Shopping Alternative According to Kantar Retail, approximately 73% of rural consumers, or those who drive at least 10 miles for everyday shopping, made online purchases during 2016, compared to 68% during 2014. Shipping services that deliver online purchases to rural addresses must travel greater distances, which has forced UPS and FedEx to charge extra for remote residential deliveries. A much larger percentage of rural Americans do not have access to the standard broadband service of 25 Mbps/3 Mbps, restricting the number of rural Americans who can shop online quickly and conveniently.

Media in the Countryside Using The Media Audit’s Fall 2016 survey of the Columbus, OH market reveals that 22.3% of adults 18+ live in the non-metro area, with the remaining 77.7% living in the metro area. In addition, the demographic data supports the notion that more rural Americans are Caucasian and older, with lower household incomes and less education. According to a media day analysis of these two target groups, radio and the Internet not only captured the largest percentages of non-metro adults 18+, but also indexed much higher than metro adults.

A Slow Adoption of Digital “Rural Americans are approximately twice as likely as those who live in urban or suburban settings never to use the Internet.” Pew Research Center, 2016 From 2012 through 2016, rural Americans use of social media increased 27.7%, from 47% to 60%, while suburban Americans use of social media increased 29.1%, from 55% to 71%. Columbus, OH survey data from The Media Audit reveals that Pinterest had the largest percentage of adults 18+ in non-metro counties who logged onto the site during the past month than any other major social media site.

Consumer Purchasing Insights The same Columbus, OH Fall 2016 survey shows that auto dealers that sell foreign makes will find few buyers in non-metro counties, as only 0.5% planned to buy a foreign car, van, truck or SUV. Larger percentages of non-metro county than metro county adults 18+ were planning to remodel their homes and buy a new bed or mattress during the next year. A higher percentage of non-metro county than metro county adults participated in golf during the past year. One factor may be that more golf courses are closer to non-metro than metro populations.

An Abundance of Opportunities Because you have the experience and knowledge to help guide your clients’ decisions about using TV and digital media in their advertising programs, you’re in an advantageous position to maximize their reach into the rural consumer market. Suggest suburban retailers offer discounts to rural or non-metro consumers based on mileage driven to generate more foot traffic and purchases. Retailers and/or shopping malls can promote a Rural America Weekend, with a farmer’s market and crafts and other locally sourced products from rural counties.