This chartbook is the 14th version to be produced for the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) by the Population Reference Bureau (PRB). The Chartbook describes the diversity of the Appalachian Region on a host of demographic and economic measures and provides an important annual view of the area and its people. The data contained in the…

The purpose of this research was to explore and explain the role housing plays in rural community vitality. Community vitality refers to economic strength and social well-being. In spring 2002 we collected primary interview data from informants in 134 small rural communities in nine north-central states and identified related secondary data from…

Things are not going so well in small-town America. While the so-called "Great Recession" of the moment has focused considerable attention on the travails of Main Street and Middle America, the truth is that the troubles that plague such places have been a long time in the making. For the past 30 years, nonmetropolitan counties and the…

This paper asks, what are the attributes of the rural working class population in England and Wales? Drawing on the Office for National Statistics' (ONS) Longitudinal Study (LS), household and personal attributes at both the 1991 and 2001 Censuses are examined, with a view to exploring how far the rural working classes can be conceptualised as a…

The School Community Council of the Fort Gay-Thompson area (West Virginia), organized in May 1971, requested a study in order to look at its past, assess present needs, and plan for the future. The study of the Fort Gay-Thompson School Attendance Area was designed to: (1) describe the area; (2) analyze the characteristics of the people living…

Rural communities of less than 2,500 residents in Illinois showed a reversal of growth patterns between 1950-80. During the 1950's Illinois' approximately 900 rural towns grew at a rate of 60% compared with 81-86% growth rate for towns in other size classes; during the 1970's rural towns showed a steady growth increase of 73% while growth of towns…

For many small-town citizens the post office remains an essential institution, not only as a collector and distributor of the mails but also as a focal point of sociability and intimacy, as a news center, and as a provider of special neighborhood services and counseling. In order to provide data for the Postal Rate Commission (charged with…

Utilizing U.S. Census and other government data, the characteristics of rural areas with noncommuting populations were identified in terms of: (1) Population Trends (1970 regional population distribution, 1960-70 population change, 1970 age distribution of U.S. population, 1960-70 growth and decline of towns); (2) Income and Employment (1959-67…

An adult education master plan for Virginia's New River Community College is presented. The plan is divided into the following areas: (1) college philosophy and objectives; (2) description of the service region (population, educational and economic data and employment characteristics); (3) what the college is doing, should be doing, and is…

Data from 92 towns in northern New York were used to examine the influence of community social-class composition on both de facto and de jure discrimination against such housing. The positive influence of population growth on mobile-home occurrence was found to be conditioned by intercommunity class composition. (JHZ)

Using factor analysis (both principal factor solutions and rotated factor solutions) to search for underlying statistical commonality among 12 indicators of community satisfaction in 6 Colorado communities, the research explores various dimensions of community satisfaction that may be important across different communities. The communities under…

In producing programs and establishing policy criteria for the institutional church in rural Canada, planners must deal with community groups or types in order to maximize the transferability of programs and policies. This paper discusses a two-dimensional typology (social context and social position) based on the belief that there is a real…

A study identified community characteristics associated with the presence of a school. Data from the U.S. census and the state department of education for 297 rural New York villages indicated that social and economic welfare is higher in communities with schools. Schools are especially critical to the well-being of the smallest villages.…

Menominee Indian Reservation became a county after the 1960 Census of Population; therefore, data for the county as a unit were distributed throughout the census publication and appeared as civil division tabulation. This 1963 report attempts to compile these data, as well as data from previous census publications, and present them in easily…