Valuing Rural Minority Communities: Inclusive Growth, Broadband, and Leadership

Which rural minority communities are growing? What are the strategies behind these growth-oriented communities? Answers to these questions are central to this report; we illuminate inspiring leadership regimes and strategic policy models that are drawing in people and jobs to rural minority communities. We capitalize on a wealth of publicly available administrative data to outline these economies and deconstruct trends in employment, business creation, broadband adoption, and the labor force. We found that fast internet facilitated by broadband technology is vital to fostering the internet’s roles in commerce and economic development. Additionally, rural counties exhibited distinct differences in their aggregate labor market dynamics before and after the COVID-19 pandemic and in broadband access. Ultimately, broadband can enable critical economic forces if used appropriately, but other critical factors must be present for this tool to function optimally. The economic challenges facing some of the assessed counties were a result of multiple systemic obstacles.