Percent of Tax Returns Claiming EITC

Tax returns from rural counties are slightly more likely to claim EITC. Of all returns filed in 2012, 22% of returns from rural counties claim the credit as compared to 21% from mixed rural (more densely populated counties), 18% from mixed urban and 20% from urban.* To find out how much EITC generates for rural […]

Rural EITC Claims by State

Families living in rural and mixed-rural counties claim $24 billion in Earned Income Tax Credits annually*. In total, 6.1 million families (about one-in-five) claimed the credit on their taxes in 2012. In the most rural places, 22% of households claimed the credit totaling $6.2 billion. In the poorest counties (counties with 30% child poverty or […]

Higher Education Lagging in Rural and Mixed-Rural Counties

Forty-eight percent of adults living in rural counties*, 37 million people, have not received a college degree or participated in college courses. By comparison, 39% of urban and mixed-urban county residents have not received a college degree or enrolled in college courses. With more and more jobs requiring post-secondary degrees, increasing rural access to higher education and job […]

One-in-Five New Rural Americans is Foreign-Born

Over 11 million new residents moved to rural and mixed-rural* counties across the United States since 2000. Of the 11 million, 2.3 were foreign-born. That means that one-in-five new rural Americans are immigrants.

Rural Counts: 6.1 Million Kids in Poverty

Bar graph showing concentration of child poverty in rural and urban areas.

“How are we doing?” In rural America, this simple phrase is often a greeting wrapped up in a question. Achieving widespread family economic success requires that we regularly ask that same question to measure how far we’ve come and guide where we’re going. In this same spirit, the Annie E. Casey Foundation recently released the […]

How much does it cost for a business to replace an employee?

The Center for American Progress conducted a review of 30 academic studies that approximated the cost of replacing a worker who left the job due to firing or quitting. Their review concluded that the cost of replacing a worker averages around 10% to 30% of the worker’s annual salary. In other words, not having to […]

Average Earned Income Tax Credit by State (2013)

Nationally, the average 2013 EITC (for the 2012 tax year) was $2,335 according to the IRS. The figures, however, varied widely by state. In Vermont, the average was $1,840 and in Mississippi the average EITC was $2,747. Find your state’s average EITC in the table below. State Average EITC Amount Alabama $2,685 Alaska $2,011 Arizona $2,467 […]

Estimated Net New Hispanic Rural/Mixed-Rural Residents by State*

Increasingly, rural America’s new neighbors are Hispanic/Latino. While only a small percentage of Americans living in rural and mixed-rural counties are Hispanic – 12% – they make up a large number of new families moving and being born in rural places. One-in-two of America’s new rural neighbors are Hispanic. Put differently, that is 1.5 million […]

RuFES is a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group.
One Dupont Circle NW, Suite 700, Washington, D.C., 20036