Rural communities in New England have endured a significantly lower COVID-19 case rate than urban parts of the region, but the economic impact of job losses has been similarly devastating across both rural and urban areas, according to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
From January 2020 to January 2021, New England’s rural counties recorded 2,839 confirmed COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, compared to 6,975 cases per 100,000 residents in urban counties — nearly two and a half times as many. Over the same span, total employment dropped 6.1 percent in rural counties in New England and 7.4 percent in the region’s urban counties, a comparatively smaller gap than the one between case rates and also between rural and urban counties in the United States as a whole.
Researchers attributed the difference to the greater share in New England of industries most affected by shutdown orders, such as hospitality.
The damage inflicted by the pandemic and its economic slowdown also exacerbated a long-running trend of rising rent prices, researchers found.
Massachusetts officials have often cited a lack of production and insufficient supply, particularly in the eastern part of the state, as factors driving up housing prices. The Fed said while the growing burden of rent has been frequently highlighted in urban areas, it also poses a problem for rural communities.
“Between 2000 and 2019, the average renter household income across rural New England increased 4.1 percent (adjusted for inflation), while the average rent increased 27.3 percent,” Fed researchers wrote. “In urban areas during this period, the average income increased 11 percent, while the average rent increased 31.1 percent.”
