News

An update to Rural Urban Continuum Codes

The USDA – ERS has released the new Rural-Urban Continuum Codes for each county. Kelly Asche, Senior Research April 2024 People love classifications—the ability to split things into separate, distinct groups makes them easier to measure, providing some clarity when creating policy. Although we agree that most classifications aren’t perfect, we also don’t give enough ...
Farm field with clouds

Census of Agriculture – Lots of variation across Minnesota

The recent Census of Agriculture shows that ag in rural Minnesota isn’t monolithic. Kelly Asche, Senior Researcher April 2024 A topic that is frequently discussed among rural residents, particularly in agricultural areas, is how much farming has changed over the last 50 years. The technology being used, the crops that now dominate the landscape, and ...

Closing the wage gap – part 2

Highest paying occupations drive the difference between the Twin Cities seven-county metro and the rest of Minnesota. Kelly Asche, Senior Researcher March 2024 As the search for workers intensifies throughout Minnesota, the conversation around wages and the gap between rural areas and the seven-county metro continues to come up. To try and add some nuance ...

Season 4, Episode 5: Proposed housing legislation with Scott McMahon

March 2024 On this episode, Kelly Asche, Senior Research with the Center for Rural Policy and Development, speaks with Scott McMahon, Executive Director of the Greater Minnesota Partnership about proposed legislation in the Minnesota legislature. The Greater MN Partnership has been advocating for state investment in rural housing and in 2023 they successfully advocated to ...
Hands holding a family cut out from paper

The power of community

Marnie Werner Vice President of Research & Operations   My dad once told me his boss had a sign on his door that read: “Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?” When I first started at the Center in 2000, I think rural Minnesota was at a crossroads of sorts. The ...

Research webinar – The suicide epidemic in rural Minnesota

The Center for Rural Policy & Development and the Citizens League are excited to continue our “Interconnected” series highlighting  topics important to both rural and urban audiences. In this webinar, hear a presentation from Vice President of Research, Marnie Werner, providing an overview of the Center for Rural Policy and Development’s newest research – “The ...

Season 4, Episode 4: Suicide research with Dr. Tracie Rutherford Self

Our most recent research highlighted the suicide epidemic in rural Minnesota. On this episode, researchers and authors of the report, Marnie Werner and Tracie Rutherford Self, discuss the various elements of how we got to this point in rural areas, the factors that are playing a role, and ways in which we can move forward ...