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farm406 12 THE TRENDING DIVIDE Is Montana's Rural Economy Doing Better than The National Rural Economy? Joel Schumacher farm finance Recently, articles in the national news, such as the Wall Street Journal's "Rural America is the New Inner City," have highlighted the social and economic challenges facing rural America. This article cites data that shows in rural America, the percentage of adult males with jobs is lower and death rates from cancer, lung disease and cardiovascular disease are all higher than in urban areas. These statistics were very different in 1980 when rural areas were doing better than urban areas. A recent USDA report points out that the number of persons in the labor force in metro areas has risen about 5% since 2008 while non-metro areas have about 3% fewer persons in the labor force. What has been happening in rural Montana over the past decade? First, let's take a look at population changes. Montana has long had a trend of population moving away from northern and eastern parts of the state and moving toward western and south central Montana. This trend is easily visualized in this map of population changes from 1960 to 2007 (growth areas are represented in white). Over the past decade this long term trend does not appear to be continuing. Population gains on the parts of highline, in the northeast corner and the Bakken region are shifts from the longer term trends. Declines in a few western Montana counties (Lincoln, Madison, and Powell) are also departures from the trend. Population Change: 1960 to 2007

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