Rural-urban poverty gap narrowed over the past decade; USDA offers a database with county-level maps

"The rural poverty rate has exceeded the urban rate ever since the government began tracking both in the 1960s. The difference, 4.5 percentage points in the 1980s, has narrowed to an average of 3.1 points over the past 10 years, said the U.S. Department of Agriculture in updating its Rural Poverty and Well-being webpage," Chuck Abbott reports for the Food & Environment Reporting Network.

"According to Census Bureau data, the rural poverty rate was 15.4 percent and the urban rate was 11.9% in 2019. The recent peak for rural poverty was 18.4% in 2013, during the slow recovery from the Great Recession. Poverty rates are highest in the South, including the Mississippi Delta, and in Appalachia," Abbott reports, noting that the rural poverty rate was 33% when the Census Bureau began tracking it in 1959, twice as high as metropolitan areas' 15% rate.

The Rural Poverty & Well-being page has data breaking down rural-urban poverty rate comparisons over time; regional analysis of poverty, including maps; demographic break-downs of rural and urban poverty by race and age, state-level fact sheets, and maps at the state and county level.