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Change in U.S. Small Town Community Capitals, 1980–2010

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Abstract

The county scale has thus far dominated rural demographic research—this descriptive profile of small town America is unique with its place-based lens. Another important extension is the nationwide application of the Community Capitals Framework which builds on the body of research examining capitals within case studies focused on one or more communities. Here, we examine place-based “community capitals” at the national scale through novel integration of data from a wide variety of sources. The goal is to identify tiny town socioeconomic and demographic patterns of change—or trajectories—over the past several decades—and contrast remote small towns with those proximate to metropolitan areas. Results reveal both commonalities and distinctions. Instead of differences in trends across time, the analyses suggest that what differs are the more general profiles of small places as contrasted with national data. For example, regardless of metro proximity, small town America has lower levels of human and financial capital. Still, distinction also appears in that rural population growth has focused on high-amenity regions, bringing some increases in community capitals but potentially also exacerbating inequalities. In all, the analyses presented here offer an important foundation for necessary work at the place scale to improve understanding of the nuances inherent in population shifts, and their implications, within rural communities.

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Notes

  1. Although the CCF is defined in terms of these seven forms of capital, other frameworks use slightly different formulations of capital types. For example, Farmer et al. (2012) have five: economic, human, social, cultural, and natural.

  2. Metropolitan areas include counties that contain one or more core urban areas (50,000 or more people), and adjacent counties that are socially and economically tied to the urban core (USDA ERS 2018b).

  3. Although the population in Monroe City, Missouri was reported as 2,557 in 1980, Monroe City is located Monroe County which is designated as completely rural, or less than 2,500 urban population, not adjacent to a metro area by USDA ERS.

  4. Where a tiny town includes estimates from multiple tracts, we use the median code.

  5. It is important to keep in mind that this assertion is contested (Hooghe 2007; Van der Meer and Tolsma 2014). The other social capital category is “bridging” referring to outside ties such as those connecting communities, organizations, and groups that are distinct from one another (Putnam 2000).

  6. Political capital is not incorporated into these analyses due to data constraints although we continue to work toward measurement for future analyses.

  7. Robustness tests of our estimates using nonlinear models (e.g. GLS) produced very similar results.

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Acknowledgements

This research has been supported by Project Number R21HD098717-01A1, “Health, Social, and Demographic Trends in Rural Communities” funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The project has also benefited from research, administrative, and computing support, also provided by NICHD, to the University of Colorado Population Center (CUPC; Project 2P2CHD066613-06). The content is solely the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the official view of the CUPC, NIH or CU Boulder.

Funding

Funding for this research was provided by the University of Colorado Boulder’s Research and Innovation Office. This research has also benefited from research, administrative, and computing support provided by the University of Colorado Population Center (Project 2P2CHD066613-06), funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The content is solely the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the official views of the CUPC, NIH or CU Boulder. Indirect support was provided by the Welcome Trust (Agincourt Unit, grant 085477/Z/08/Z) through its support of the MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit. The authors would like to thank the communities, respondents, field staff and management of the Agincourt Unit for their respective contributions to the production of the data used in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS), University of Colorado Population Center (CUPC), University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, USA

    Lori M. Hunter, Catherine B. Talbot, Miriam Counterman, Johannes H. Uhl, Myron P. Gutmann & Stefan Leyk

  2. Department of Sociology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, USA

    Lori M. Hunter, Catherine B. Talbot & Miriam Counterman

  3. School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA

    Dylan Shane Connor

  4. Department of History, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, USA

    Myron P. Gutmann

  5. Department of Geography, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, USA

    Stefan Leyk

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  1. Lori M. Hunter
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Correspondence to Lori M. Hunter.

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Hunter, L.M., Talbot, C.B., Connor, D.S. et al. Change in U.S. Small Town Community Capitals, 1980–2010. Popul Res Policy Rev 39, 913–940 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-020-09609-4

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