Hardship in the Heartland: Associations Between Rurality, Income, and Material Hardship

Approximately one in three US households have experienced material hardship, including food, healthcare access and transportation hardship. The inadequate or unstable provision of basic needs is more typical in households with children or persons of color and is associated with numerous negative outcomes. Little is known, however, about the relationship between rurality, income, and material hardship. Using data from the 2016 State Innovation Model (SIM) Statewide Consumer Survey (weighted N = 2,371,739), we used logistic regression to examine the association between rurality, income, and four forms of material hardship, including food hardship, healthcare access hardship, transportation hardship, and any material hardship. Rural respondents had higher odds than non-rural respondents for experiencing healthcare access hardship. In contrast, rural respondents incurred lower odds than non-rural respondents for experiencing food hardship, transportation hardship and any hardship. All models of hardship indicated that lower income respondents incurred greater odds for having material hardship.