Public Scholars

Policy and programming are important to our work…

RPRN’s primary goal is the production of high-impact policy-relevant research that informs users about current demographic trends and their implications for rural policy.

We are a group of scientists with expertise in rural demographic change (fertility, health and mortality, migration, composition) and interests in development, policy, and governance. The overarching objectives of our current 5-year project (USDA Multistate Research Committee W5001) are to describe recent trends in rural population change and wellbeing; investigate the roles of contemporary health, environmental, and economic shocks and stressors in driving these changes; and identify how communities and institutions adapt to these challenges.

As with our previous multi-state projects, our objectives are intentionally broad to enable us to incorporate stakeholder feedback as we refine and prioritize our research questions.

Objective 1: Describe recent U.S. rural population change and the components of these changes, and investigate the roles of recent population health, environmental, and policy shocks and stressors in driving these changes.

Objective 2: Describe shifts in rural economic wellbeing (i.e., poverty, livelihood strategies, income, housing, infrastructure) in the context of recent population health, environmental, and policy shocks and stressors and identify linkages between economic wellbeing and population dynamics, policies, and institutional responses.

Objective 3: Investigate how recent shocks and stressors affect trends in rural population health, disabilities, and health disparities across the lifespan and how communities and institutions respond to and adapt to these challenges.

More information about W5001 can be found: https://nimss.org/projects/view/mrp/outline/18897