DOCUMENT RESUME RC 018 957 ED 354 119 O'Hare, William P.; Curry-White, Brenda AUTHOR The Rural Underclass: Examination of Multiple-Problem TITLE Populations in Urban and Rural Settings. Staff Working Papers. Population Reference Bureau, Inc., Washington, INSTITUTION D.C. Rockefeller Foundation, New York, N.Y. SPONS AGENCY Jan 92 PUB DATE 33p. NOTE Research/Technical (143) Reports PUB TYPE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE Black Population Trends; Census Figures; Dropouts; DESCRIPTORS *Economically Disadvantaged; *Economic Factors; Economic Status; Females; *Lower Class; Low Income Groups; Population Trends; Poverty; *Racial Distribution; Regional Characteristics; *Rural Areas; *Rural Urban Differences; Unemployment; Welfare Recipients United States (South) IDENTIFIERS ABSTRACT This study uses data from the U.S. Census' 1980 and 1990 Current Population Survey to examine characteristics of the underclass populations in rural and urban areas. The analysis assesses changes of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan underclass populations between 1980 and 1990, with special attention to race and geographic area. Underclass populations are defined as adults who: (2) receive public assistance; (1) have not completed high school; and (3) are single mothers or long-term unemployed. The prevalence of the underclass in rural areas (2.4%) was less than that in central cities (3.4%), but significantly higher than the level in suburban areas (1.17.). The rural poverty rate, like that of central cities, is above the national average. In rural areas, 55 percent of the underclass population is white, compared with only 17 percent in the cities. Females account for 47 percent of the rural underclass, compared with 60 percent in central cities. The rural underclass has proportionately fewer young adults (48%) and more people of preretirement age (59%). The likelihood of underclass membership among rural minorities (Blacks and Hispanics) is higher than it is for those in central cities. The rural underclass is highly concentrated in the South, whereas the urban underclass is evenly divided among census regions. The data support the idea of a black underclass migration from the rural South to Northern cities. This data requires further testing before any conclusions can be drawn. (TES) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** Population Reference Bureau The Rural Underclass: Populations Examination of Multiple-Problem in Urban and Rural Settings by Curry-White William P. O'Hare and Brenda University of Louisville U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and improvement INFORMATION EDU ATIONAL RESOURCES CENTER (ERICI as his document has been reproduced received from the person Or organization originating a to improve 0 Minor changes nave been made reproduction quality this docu. .nts 01 new or oonoons stated tn °gloat F ment do not necessarily represent OERI position or policy "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY f-in Staff Working Papers r) LC) cn TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES ao INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC).- ql". January 1992 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 The Rural Underclass: Examination of Multiple-Problem Populations in Urban and Rural Settings by William P. O'Hare and Brenda Curry-White University of Louisville January 1992 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Financial support for for this paper was provided by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary . Introduction 1 . 2 Background . 4 Conceptualization and Measurement of the Underclass 6 Data and Definitions 7 Cities and Rural Areas 7 The Underclass 7 High-School Dropouts 8 Receipt of Public Assistance 9 Never-Married Mothers 9 Unemployed Men . 9 Poverty 10 Findings 11 Overview of the Underclass Comparisons of the Rural and Urban Underclass 13 Changes in the Rural and Urban Underclass During the 1980s 15 The Underclass in Large Northern Cities and the Rural South 16 20 The Deep South and the Border South States . 21 Conclusion EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Among contemporary scholars the underclass is viewed primarily, if not exclusively, dominate perspective on the underclass is captured by as an urban phenomenon. The one of the leading underclass scholars, William Julius Wilson, who states, "It is clear, then, that historic racial and class subjugation in America is a unique and one of the legacies of growing concentration of minority residents in the most impoverished areas of large Northeastern and Midwestern central cities.' The research presented here suggests that northern inner-city minorities are not unique and that, by some measures, the black underclass is more highly concentrated in the rural South than in the urban North. During the past decade there have been numerous studies of an American underclass; nearly all of them focused on people living in urban centers. The extent to which there may be a rural population that shares the "underclass" characteristics of the inner-city the hypothesis that adults with underclass poor has been largely ignored. This study tests characteristics are as prevalent in rural areas as they are in urban areas. Data from the 1980 and 1990 March Current Population Survey (CPS) conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census are used to examine adults (ages 19 to 64) living in central cities, suburbs, and rural areas in terms of characterisdc.i that might identify them as part of the underclass population. The definition of underclass used in this study builds on earlier work by Ricketts and Sawhill. Several traits identified with the underclass population can be measured with CPS data. For purposes of this study, the underclass population is identified as adults who exhibit all three of the following problematic traits: 1) Has not completed high school; 2) Receives public assistance; 3) If female, is a never married mother; or If male, lacks attachment to the labor force (that is, long-term unemployed). Examination of the 1990 CPS data indicates that there are about 3 million adults who fit this definition of the underclass. The analysis also shows that underclass characteristics central cities and rural areas than in suburbs. The prevalence are much more common in of underclass individuals in rural areas (2.4 percent) was less than the prevalence in central cities (3.4 percent), but significantly higher than the level in suburban areas (1.1 percent). The rural underclass differs from the urban underclass in several fundamental ways: In rural areas, 55 percent of the underclass population is white compared with only 17 percent in central cities. About one-third (32 percent) of the rural underclass is black compared with nearly half (49 percent) of the underclass in central cities. 'William J. Wilson, "Studying Inner-City Social Dislocations," American Sociological Review 56, no. 1 (Feb. 1Q91): 4. Females account for 47 percent of the rural underclass compared with 60 percent in central cities. The rural underclass has proportionately fewer young adults and more people of pre- retirement age. In 1990, less than half (48 percent) of the rural underclass were ages 19 to 34, but over half (59 percent) of the urban underclass were in this age group. In 1990, almost one-quarter (23 percent) of the rural underclass were ages 50 to 64, but only 15 percent of the urban underclass were in this age bracket. The prevalence (or rate) of underclass membership among blacks is higher in rural areas (9.1 percent) than in central cities (7.5 percent). The prevalence of underclass membership among Hispanics is also higher in rural areas (7.0 percent) than in central cities (6.7 percent), but the rural/urban difference is not as pronounced as that seen among blacks. highly concentrated in the South, whereas the urban The rural underclass is underclass is almost evenly divided among the four census regions. Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of the rural underclass resides in the South. The South is the only region where the underclass rate is higher for rural residents (3.5 percent) than for urban residents (2.6 percent). Blacks in the rural South have higher underclass rates than any group examined here, including blacks in large northern cities. Much of the literature on the underclass has focused on minority populations in large cities of the North. In this study, we examine the underclass population found in the rural South and compare it with the underclass found in central cities of large metropolitan areas in the North. There was a higher prevalence of underclass adults in the central cities of large metropolitan areas in the North (that is, the Northeast and Midwest regions) than in the rural areas of the South, but this was related to the racial composition of the two areas. Blacks represent a higher percentage of the total population of large central cities in the North, and blacks are much more likely than whites to have underclass characteristics. When blacks and whites are examined separately, however, the prevalence of underclass individuals is higher in the rural South than in central cities of the North. About one in ten bla,k adults in the rural South fall into the underclass. The findings of this study lend some support to LE mann's hypothesis that the black underclass found in large northern cities may be closely :inked to the migration of blacks out of the rural South to northern cities. However, the hypothesis requires further testing before any conclusions can he drawn. ii INTRODUCTION analysis During the 1980s a large number of studies focused on the identification and issue was of an underclass population in the United States. While the emergence of this scholars closely linked to journalists,2 it also received considerable attention from academic decade.3 Commentary and analysis on this issue focused almost exclusively on over the past research :s people living in urban centers, however. The largely urban focus of underclass the authors captured in the first two sentences of a recent article in Science magazine where popularized the use of the term say, "In recent years the media in the United States have in the 'underclass'. In most peoples minds the term conjures up a group of people who live inner city."4 volume Another example of the urban focus in underclass research is found in a special inner of The Annals on the underclass that contained several articles focusing specifically on city neighborhoods.5 None of the articles focused on the rural poor, and most did not even mention the possibility of a rural underclass. Other recent work on the underclass has also focused exclusively on urban residents.6 In fact, among many researchers and commentators concept.7 There the term "urban underclass" has become synonymous with the underclass rural has been virtually no examination of the extent to which underclass definitions apply to America or the extent to which a rural underclass may exist. This paper addresses that oversight by developing a measure of the underclass that is consistent with past research and applying it to the population in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. The underclass measure will also he used to assess changes in the underclass population between 1980 and 1990. The last segment of the analysis tests a hypothesis recently proffered by Lemann who suggests that the black underclass in large 2Sec for example, Ken Auletta, The Underclass (New York: Random House, 1982); George Gilder, Wealth and Poverty (New York: Bantam Books, 1981); Nicholas Lemann series "The Origins of the Underclass,"AtIontic ltfonihly (June and July 1986); and Leon Dash's series "At Risk: The Chronicles of Teenage Pregnancy," Washington Post (26-31 January 1986). 3Christophcr Jencks and Paul E. Petersen, The Urban Underclass (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1991). 4 Ronald B. Mincy, Isabel V. Sawhill and Douglas A. Wolf, The Underclass: Definition and Measurement," Science 24.8 (April 1990): 450-454. 5William Julius Wilson, "The Ghetto Underclass: Social Science Perspectives," The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 501 (January 1989). 6Christopher Jencks and Paul E. Petersen, The Urban Underclass (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1991). 42 7 Martha A. Gephart and Robert Pearson, "Contemporary Research on the Urban Underclass," Items (June 1988): 1-10. 1 northern cities has its roots in the rural South. BACKGROUND Underclass researchers have overlooked the rural poor despite the fact that many of the trends in rural America mirror those identified in inner city underclass areas. For example, the poverty rate in rural America, like that in central cities, is persistently above the national Bureau show that the poverty rate in average. The most recent data from the U.S. Census the nonmetropolitan population was 16.3 percent in 1990 compared to 13.5 percent nationwide.8 The 1990 poverty rate in large cities was 19.0 percent. In 1986, when the rural its recent slump, the poverty rate in rural areas was economy was in the deepest part of equal to that in cities (18 percent). Rural areas have been largely ignored by underclass scholars despite the fact that the rural poor are more likely than the urban poor to be long-term poor. Persistent poverty has been a central compcdent of the underclass concept. People who fall into poverty for a year changes in employment or marital status are different from those or two because of abrupt who remain in poverty year after year. In this respect, several recent studies have shown that the rural poor are more likely time.9 One recent analysis found than the urban poor to be in poverty for long periods of that between 1976 and 1985, 7.8 percent of the able-bodied poor in rural areas were long- only 4.4 percent in urban areas.10 term poor compared with Another characteristic typically used to describe the underclass population is their concentration in high poverty neighborhoods. Such areas of concentrated poverty clearly exist in rural areas. Research by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found 206 persistently of which are located in the South.11 Census Bureau data indicate poor rural counties, most that the rural poor, like their urban counterparts, tend to be concentrated in geographic extremely high.12 About 24 percent of all people in rural areas where poverty rates are 8U.S. Bureau of the Census, "Money Income and Poverty Status in the United States: 1990," Current Population Reports P-60, no. 175, (Washington, DC: GPO, 1991). 9Greg Duncan, Years of Poverty: Years of Plenty (Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan, 1984): table 2.2, p. 49; and U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1986 Agricultural Chartbook, chart 11. 10TerryK. Adams and Greg J. Duncan, "Long-term Poverty in Nonmetropolitan Areas" (Paper presented by the Aspen Institute and the Ford Foundation, Queenstown, MD, at conference on rural poverty, sponsored 1990). 11D.Bellamy, "Economic and Socio-Demographic Change in Persistent Low-income Counties: An Update" New Orleans, LA, 1988). (Paper presented at the Southern Rural Sociological Association, 2U.S. Bureau of the Census, "Poverty: 1990", table 9. areas resided in high poverty communities, but 39 percent of the rural poor lived in areas with high poverty rates. Likewise, about 26 percent of all people in central cities lived in neighborhoods with high poverty rates, but 52 percent of poor people in large cities resided in such areas. The figures for central cities and rural areas contrast sharply with data on America's suburbs, where only 4 percent of suburban residents are poor; but 16 percent of the suburban poor are living in high poverty areas. Many scholars have noted the high proportion of minorities in the underclass. In this regard, minorities in rural areas, like their counterparts in urban areas, tend to be concentrated in high poverty communities. Census Bureau data show that among blacks, 68 percent of the rural poor reside in high poverty areasnearly the same percentage as found cities.13 Among Latinos, the proportion of rural among poor blacks in large poor living in high poverty areas is somewhat lower than for Latinos in large cities-44 percent vs. 61 percent, respectively. Ethnographic research suggests that there are pockets of rural poverty that rival inner- city ghettos in terms of depth and persistence of poverty and deprivation. While some of these areas are places of long-standing poverty, such as Appalachia or the Mississippi Delta, others are relatively new, such as farming communities of the northern Plains.1 University of Chicago sociologist William J. Wilson has identified the out-migration of middle-class blacks during the 1960s and 1970s as a major factor in the development of inner-city underclass areas.15 Here again we see similar trends in rural America. Rural been experiencing out-migration and population loss since areas, like many large cities, have the early 1980s.16 Between 1986 and 1987, Census Bureau data indicate that nearly a million more people moved out of rural areas than moved in.17 Furthermore, migration out of rural areas has been selective. One study found that more than half of the adults leaving rural areas had completed at least one year of college.18 13/bid., table 9. 140sha Gray Davidson, Broken Heartland: The Rise of America's Rural Ghetto (New York: The Free Press, 1990). 15William J. Wilson, The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987). 16William P. O'Hare, "The Rise of Poverty in Rural America," Population Trends and Public Policy 15 (Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau, 1988). 17U.S.Bureau of the Census, "Geographic Mobility: March 1986 to March 1987," Current Population Reports P-20, no. 430 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1989): table D. 180'Hare"The Rise of Poverty," p. 2. 3