Executive Summary The Survey of Rural Challenges asks rural people to share their ground-level insight into the challenges they face and the assets they can use. This report analyzes over 2200 responses from communities across the US and Canada from 2015 to 2024. The responses show what’s changing and what isn’t […]. This report analyzes over 2200 responses from communities across the US and Canada from 2015 to 2024. The responses show what’s changing and what isn’t in small towns and rural places from the point of view of their own people. Persistent challenges: Youth out-migration, downtown decline, workforce shortages and struggles with local business marketing continue to challenge rural communities.
Fast-moving concerns: The housing crisis, lack of adequate childcare and lack of support for small businesses have increased as significant rural challenges in recent years. Slow-building challenges: Over time, the lack of volunteers, the pressure from online competition on local businesses, and the lack of usable commercial buildings have risen to greater importance. Appreciating assets: The strength of rural communities to address their challenges comes from significant assets, including natural resources, strong social bonds, a spirit of entrepreneurship, a small but dedicated workforce and action on broadband access. Demographic shifts: Besides basic population numbers in their communities, rural people noted differences in ages, professions, education and more. The external view:
Much of this nuance is lost in the external understanding of rural challenges and assets in the media, government, organizations and agencies. The primary conclusion is that although good ideas are stifled by conflict, negativity and old way thinking, communities that are open to new ideas can thrive. Agencies, organizations, media and policy makers can use these insights to improve how they serve rural people. Survey of Rural Challenges Ten-year Trends The Survey of Rural Challenges collected input online from rural and small town people. The questions offered multiple-choice options for challenges and open-ended responses about assets, community makeup and anything else they wanted to share about their communities and businesses.
The survey was opened for limited time periods, with results shared in 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2024. This data over time provides a view of the changes in rural communities. Authors Becky McCray and Deb Brown analyzed the complete set of over 2200 responses, identifying challenges that have persisted, new fast-moving concerns and some slow building challenges that have risen over time. They also identified rural assets, the internal view of demographic shifts in rural communities, and insight into how the external view differs. The primary insight: Good ideas are stifled by conflict, negativity and old way thinking, and towns that are open to new ideas can thrive. In all rounds of the survey, open-ended responses were dominated by all kinds of negativity, the stifling influence of the old guard in leadership, and people who tried to slow down any changes.
Responses mentioned leaders not moving forward, not acting on suggestions or new ideas, people with a “poor us” attitude, and communities breaking into factions for and against change. Personal agendas, local organizations that don’t work together and infighting hold communities back. In 2019, one response said: The old guard had a lot of experience – good & bad – and with new ideas tended to say “we tried something like that once…” and instead of taking what didn’t work & learning from it, crossed it off the list of things to try at all Facing apathy, resistance to new ideas and focusing too much on the past all inhibit how willing people say they are to keep taking action. People’s initiative becomes “a strength hobbled by a problem,” one response from 2023 said. Iowa State University’s Small Town Project showed that openness to new ideas was the factor most correlated to positive outcomes and thriving communities. If there is one single thing that can most positively change the trajectory of rural communities, it is to be more open to new ideas. Applying the Idea Friendly Method from SaveYour.Town is one way to accomplish this.
Persistent challenges: Youth out-migration, downtown decline, workforce shortages and struggles with local business marketing continue to challenge rural communities. Each of the following challenges has remained at or near the top of the multiple choice challenges across all rounds of the survey. In 2021, challenges stemming from the pandemic and economic crisis ranked lower than these persistent challenges. Any rural support that does not consider these top challenges is ignoring critical ongoing needs. The loss of young people has consistently been one of the top five challenges. Residents see the annual exodus of high school graduates as representing the loss of their town’s future. Rural residents are not only concerned with retaining young people but also attracting new younger adult residents.
The decline of downtown areas is another highly visible symbol of changes in rural communities. Shifts in economic realities have changed what businesses are present and the amount of activity in downtowns over most people’s lifetimes. Though more open-ended comments have shown appreciation for their downtown areas’ businesses, buildings and charm, “dead” downtowns continue to rank as a top multiple choice challenge. The lack of investment in downtown infrastructure is also a factor in the need for usable commercial buildings, one of the slow-building challenges. Small town businesses continue to struggle with effective marketing. Traditional media has declined in rural areas, removing a once-powerful tool for local business marketing.
Local business people say the fast moving changes in online marketing have been difficult for them to keep up with and consistently master. While workforce challenges are not unique to small towns, rural businesses face the added complication of a smaller labor market to begin with. Employees are often cited as a great asset of rural businesses, even as organizations struggle to hire new people. One person said in 2023, “The biggest challenge is keeping your greatest assets going. I work in health care, and we currently have great staff. However, there are many open positions that cannot be filled.” Fast-moving concerns: The housing crisis, lack of adequate childcare, and lack of support for small businesses have rapidly increased as significant rural challenges in recent years.
These fast-moving challenges may surprise some observers and some rural residents. The data challenges existing views of small towns formed over decades and calls for quick responses from rural-serving organizations, policy makers and local leaders. Rural housing has moved from a key asset to a critical shortage. In 2015 and 2017, housing was barely mentioned in responses. Cheap housing was seen as a small town asset, drawing new residents out of more expensive urban areas. Starting in 2019, housing ranked as a top rural challenge, and it has remained in the top three since then. The increasing cost of housing, declining condition of existing houses, loss of houses through attrition and a lack of new construction were all mentioned.
The lack of childcare has quickly risen to crisis proportions, made more evident during the pandemic and post-pandemic. Without adequate childcare, responses said people are kept out of the rural workforce and potential new residents are reluctant or unable to move into small communities. Although several people mentioned new housing initiatives in their communities, progress on child care remained elusive. The lack of support for small businesses shot to the top of the rankings on the most recent survey. Feelings of not being supported have long been mentioned in responses, but this marked a sudden spike in concern. Business owners talked about unfair incentives offered to recruit outside businesses, as well as the lack of direct support from officials and organizations. One person said in 2024, “Chamber of Commerce only cares about the big money businesses/industry and is stuck in the 70’s 80’s way of doing business.” Slow-building challenges: Over time, the lack of volunteers, the pressure from online competition on local businesses, and the lack of usable commercial buildings have risen to greater importance. Even experienced rural observers may have missed these challenges as they have slowly risen to the top. Current rural programs have not proven effective at stopping this increase. The lack of usable commercial buildings frequently surprises outside observers.
In 2015 the lack of usable buildings ranked in the middle of the business challenges, ranking about the same as the challenge of finding a small business loan. Since then, the lack of usable buildings has climbed into the top challenges, while the difficulty finding a loan has continued to drop in the rankings. The lack of buildings is closely tied to the decline of rural downtowns and the lack of investment in small town infrastructure. It is complicated by individuals who buy buildings, sometimes many buildings in a single community, but do not maintain them or make them available for commercial use. Many are used as cheap storage, either for the remains of a former business or personal items. “We have a lot of dilapidated buildings in our downtown, many of which are owned by 2 families who are pack rats and have them filled with junk and garbage,” one 2015 response said. “They never plan to open these as business and it makes our town look terrible.” Volunteers are seen as strong assets in rural communities, and the lack of volunteers is a growing challenge. Since 2021, lack of volunteers has ranked in the top five challenges, after ranking in the middle on earlier surveys.
Responses frequently mentioned the same few volunteers burning out, making it harder to maintain events and organizations. Existing volunteers are often described as seniors, retired and “tried and true” people. Younger people are often mentioned as unwilling or uninterested in volunteering. Younger people who try to volunteer say they are ignored, run into inflexible ways of doing things and are assigned “life sentence” volunteer terms. Competition from online sales increasingly squeezes local businesses in small towns. Early responses in 2015 and 2017 mentioned big box stores as the key competition. That has shifted to increasing mentions of online competition. This reflects the US Census Bureau reports of e-commerce sales of 7% of total retail sales in 2015, increasing to 16% in 2024. “Shopping habits of people have changed, so it’s difficult to get people to come downtown when they can easily shop online,” one response from 2024 said. “I don’t see that reversing any time soon.” Appreciating assets: The strength of rural communities to address their challenges comes from significant assets including natural resources, strong social bonds, a spirit of entrepreneurship, a small but dedicated workforce and action on broadband access. Rather than focus only–or even primarily–on challenges, rural communities benefit from focusing on their wide variety of assets. Services and policies can also be more tailored to rural assets.
When asked to name their assets, rural people most often point to their natural resources. Easy access to recreation in nature remains a strong draw for rural residents. Survey responses often mention scenic beauty and an appreciation for the unique natural qualities of their area. They also mentioned natural resources as an economic asset, including farming, minerals and mining. While much has been written about the strong social bonds of rural areas and small towns, it remains a complex topic. Small towns often have stronger ties between groups who are similar and weaker ties across groups who are different. People mentioned trouble breaking through cliques or small groups, especially those who wield decision-making power. One way that the social bonds play a positive role is through people’s sense of connection to the community itself. The sense of connection leads them to focus on solving their own problems and addressing their own challenges. One person in 2024 said, “Best assets are nature: the mountains, the trails, outdoor activities. Also welcoming atmosphere, community activities, good elementary school.” Rural entrepreneurs said they value their
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