Wall Street Journal piece on rural poverty in North Carolina

The North Carolina Rural Center shared this interesting Wall Street Journal piece on poverty in rural North Carolina this morning on their Facebook page.

The article focuses on the divide between urban and rural North Carolina, a topic that I have spoken about frequently. North Carolina's economy appears to be doing fine on the macro level due to growth in the Raleigh and Charlotte areas but when you examine micro level data, you see the gross inequality that exists within the state. The article makes mention of a couple of failed attempts to bring automobile manufacturers to rural North Carolina but does note a couple of recent successes in Edgecombe and Davidson Counties.

North Carolina is certainly not alone in having a stark divide between its rural and urban areas. As this map from The Daily Yonder shows, job growth has been anemic in many rural spaces around the country. In North Carolina, job losses have been centered around the historically impoverished eastern region of the state.

As someone who grew up in rural North Carolina, I certainly agree with the central point of the article. If you can, I encourage you to give it a read.