Grocery stores in urban and rural areas risk closure, drops in employment and declining sales when dollar stores enter the marketplace. Rural stores are hit hardest, according to USDA researchers.
This chart shows the population of every city, town and unincorporated village with fewer than 5,000 people reported in the 2020 Census. The chart is in alphabetical order.
IowaWatch
Seventy-six of Iowa’s 82 critical access hospitals ended the last fiscal year with negative operating margins, an IowaWatch analysis of their most recently reported financial data shows. Iowa’s situation falls in line with a national report that shows 46% of the nation’s rural hospitals are working
When nearly 300 Americans submitted comments this summer on the USDA's pilot plan to bring high speed broadband internet to rural America, they mentioned the great opportunities reliable internet connectivity could bring. But they also voiced skepticism over the agency's proposed plans for the proje
Urban expansion, at least in the few areas where Iowa cities are growing, is eating up some of the state’s best farmland. The urban growth is part of a national trend in which good farmland is lost to new residential neighborhoods.
Rural Iowa is facing several challenges, notably as its population grew a little more than 4 percent from 2000 to 2010, while the rest of the nation grew a little less than 10 percent during that same time. These challenges are being addressed in several ways, as we learn in this IowaWatch podcast.
