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Thursday, September 18, 2014

Rural poverty rate down, household income up

Fewer rural Americans are living in poverty, says a report by the U.S. Census Bureau. The number dropped from 8.5 million in 2012 to 7.6 million in 2013, reports Christoper Doering of The Des Moines Register. "The poverty rate outside of urban areas dropped to 16.1 percent in 2013 from 17.7 percent." Nationally, the poverty rate dropped from 15 percent to 14.5 percent, says the Census Bureau.

While fewer rural Americans are living in poverty, the average rural household income increased 2.6 percent to $42,881, while in metropolitan areas the median household income was $54,042, Doering writes. Overall, the median household income rose from $51,759 to $51,939, says the Census Bureau. (Census Bureau graphic: National poverty numbers and rate since 1959)

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