Most research on rural areas have taken a deficit perspective given the challenges experienced by rural communities (Schmidt et al. 2025). Rural areas have suffered from high unemployment, persistent economic challenges, substance misuse, and lack of adequate access to both human and physical infrastructure (Dabson, 2018; Lund et al., 2019; Sun and Monnat, 2022; Lichter and Johnson, 2023). These differences play on one another and when not addressed lead to impoverished households, depressed labor outcomes, slow growth businesses and, thus, decreased community vitality.

Rural communities face particularly acute challenges in the care economy (Henning-Smith and Kozhimannil, 2016). Limited infrastructure, geographic isolation, and demographic trends toward aging populations create conditions where care demands frequently exceed available resources. The economic consequences extend beyond individual rural and farm families to affect entire regional economies, as farm and non-farm businesses struggle to attract and retain workers who lack adequate childcare support (Hofferth and Collins, 2000; Collins et al., 2021). Understanding these geographic differences is essential for developing location-specific policies that address their unique challenges.

Rural communities have focused on encouraging young people to return home so that their communities can benefit from their newly acquired education and experience. Dobson (2018) found that the out-migration of a younger, more educated labor force led to rural areas with an older population without the skills needed in a new economy. In some rural areas, out-migration has led to a labor shortage of working-age adults. Recent research has focused not only on out-migration, but also on staying behavior (Gruber, 2021; Haartsen and Stockdale, 2017; Bednarik and Unay-Gailhard, 2025). Cromartie et al. (2015) found that limited employment opportunities were a barrier for former residents to return to rural areas, but that returnees stated that wanting to help parents with family businesses was a pull to coming back. Bednarik and Unay-Gaihard (2025) found that physical infrastructure such as broadband access played a critical role in the staying behavior of millennials.

Cook et al. (2009) found that housing supply and quality were strong predictors of rural community vitality. However, many rural areas suffer from inadequate housing. Housing is in limited supply and what housing there is, may be of low quality or priced to be unaffordable (Gershenson and Desmond, 2024). Bredthauer et al. (2024) found that rural areas had a higher proportion of cost-burdened households, spending more than 30% of their income on housing (Bredthauer et al., 2024).

Rural areas rely on a higher proportion of self-employed and employment in farms, small businesses and microenterprises (Phillipson et al., 2019). Small businesses account for 54% of employment in rural areas (SBA, 2023), while small family farms account for 86% of farms and operate on 41% of agricultural land (Farrigan, et al., 2024). Rural areas also have a higher proportion of non-employer businesses (Conroy et al., 2025). Small businesses, farms, and microenterprises, in turn, rely on a rural labor force limited by persistent labor obstacles resulting in lower revenues and lower productivity (Lund et al., 2019; Partridge et al., 2010).  In 2024, small business owners reported that revenues were lower than the previous year (Federal Reserve Banks, 2025) and rural small business owners reported double the revenue decline of their urban counterparts in 2025. In fact, they were less likely to report revenue growth in the last three years and more likely to state they would not survive the next two years (PYMNTS Intelligence, 2025).

Rural and farm households in the North Central Region experience challenges such as access to child and elder care, healthcare access, affordable and quality housing, volatile markets, policy shocks, and demographic shifts. For example, farmers and ranchers face one of the highest suicide rates of any occupational group in the United States (McIntosh et al., 2016; Sussell et al., 2021) and these deaths are frequently linked to financial stress, volatile income streams, and lack of accessible behavioral health care. Thus, these challenges can lead to poor household, business, and community outcomes that decrease the prosperity of rural and farm households. 

A comprehensive theoretical and empirical approach warrants considering simultaneous stressors on the household, business, and community to understand what leads to enhanced household wellbeing, small business survival and rural success. This project examines innovative and research-informed approaches for enhancing rural household welfare, workforce development, and farmer and business owner wellbeing to promote community prosperity.

Alignment with USDA Science Priorities

NC1100’s project aligns with the USDA’s priorities of Increasing Profitability of Farmers and Ranchers and Improving Human Health through Precision Nutrition and Food Quality. By generating longitudinal, regionally representative data on the financial stress, revenue volatility, and household wellbeing of farm and small business owners across the North Central Region, NC1100 produces the empirical evidence base needed to identify strategies that sustain and improve producer profitability in the face of market uncertainty. The project’s examination of food access and the relationship between dietary conditions and household health outcomes in rural communities directly advances the USDA’s objective of understanding how nutrition and food quality shape individual and family wellbeing across the lifespan.

Technical feasibility of the research

The NCR-Stat is a North Central Regional Center for Rural Development (NCRCRD) database developed as a platform and incentive for interdisciplinary collaboration across states and across research and Extension. Continuing our research with two additional rounds of baseline surveys and small business surveys to the NCR-Stat database through team collaboration to meet our new expanded objectives is highly feasible. We will build on the proven infrastructure and methodological expertise already established. The existing NCR-Stat framework provides a solid foundation, with established survey protocols, data collection mechanisms, and public dissemination pathways. The team’s demonstrated ability to coordinate across multiple states, integrate input from complementary research groups (NC1030, NC2172), and maintain data quality standards positions us well for longitudinal data collection.

To address the three objectives, the surveys will need strategic enhancements: expanding comparative measures to capture more granular healthcare access, caregiving burden, and housing affordability data (Objective 1); incorporating questions about business and farm engagement in local decision-making, local hiring practices, attraction and retention of new residents and businesses, and regional investment patterns (Objective 2); and adding modules to assess awareness, utilization, and perceived effectiveness of economic development programs and policies (Objective 3).

The established timeline of biennial data collection will allow for trend analysis over a six-year period, while the existing partnerships with regional experts and the proven webinar dissemination model will facilitate ongoing stakeholder engagement and ensure the expanded survey instruments remain relevant and actionable for rural areas and policymakers.

Advantages of doing this work as a multistate effort

The multidisciplinary perspective of the team allows us to address rural challenges in a holistic manner rather than in silos. Members of the team have appointments in research, teaching, and Extension which allows us to maximize knowledge transfer to different audiences such as farmers, ranchers, small business owners, rural households, academics, practitioners, and policy makers. Working across the states and institutions enables identification of trends and solutions that transcend individual state or local boundaries, while still maintaining local contexts. A multistate and multidisciplinary effort allows for a local-to-region-to-local approach to research and Extension.

Expanding the NC1100 project team is a priority for this project cycle. We plan to broaden participation through several complementary strategies:

1. Actively recruit researchers from NC1030, NC2172, NC1171, and W5001 who are not already NC1100 members, given the documented overlap in research interests.


2. Continue to present NC1100 work and the NCR-Stat Database at national conferences such as the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, the Rural Sociological Society, the American Council on Consumer Interests, the Community Development Society, the National American Regional Science Council, and the National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals. NCRCRD has exhibits at some of these conferences, which can help with member recruitment.


3. Continue to proactively promote the NCR-Stat Database as a research resource available to scholars outside the project, thereby increasing usage and creating natural pathways for non-member institutions to seek formal participation once they have engaged with the data.


4. Engage Extension specialists explicitly. Given NC1100’s dual research-Extension mission, recruiting faculty with joint appointments, particularly those working on rural economic development, farm financial management, or community vitality, would broaden the project’s institutional base while strengthening its outreach capacity.


5. We plan to continue to engage with the Northeast, Southern, and Western Regional Rural Development Centers to identify faculty at non-NCR land-grant institutions whose research agendas align with NC1100’s objectives, as the NCR-Stat caregiving survey’s existing collaboration with the Northeast Regional Center demonstrates proof of concept for this approach.

Impacts of successfully completing the work

Understanding how rural businesses and farms contribute to community wellbeing will help entrepreneurs identify opportunities for locally-focused business models and help rural areas leverage their local businesses more effectively for economic development. The comprehensive, multi-state longitudinal approach could become a template for rural research nationwide, potentially influencing how other regions conduct rural assessments and how federal agencies fund rural research initiatives. Our work could create one of the most comprehensive longitudinal datasets on rural dynamics, enabling future research on topics like rural vitality and adaptation and the long-term effects of policy interventions. This comprehensive data-driven work could inform national conversations about rural America’s role in economic recovery, healthcare, and regional prosperity, potentially shaping rural and farm policy. The project’s emphasis on understanding the interconnections between households, businesses, and communities represents a significant methodological advancement. This systems approach moves beyond traditional single-sector analyses to provide a more complete picture of rural economic dynamics, which can help policymakers design more effective and coordinated interventions.