A rural sociologist with Iowa State University Extension has found income levels for people living in the Iowa countryside are higher than for city dwellers. David Peters has studied census data on income and poverty levels nationwide and he has broken it down state-by-state. He discovered the median household income in rural areas of Iowa is a bit more than 60-thousand-dollars ($60,000), 11-percent higher ($52,000) than in cities. Peters says one reason may be three-quarters of Iowa farms are so-called “hobby farms.”
Peters says some rural residents are creating their own jobs.
He plans to keep an eye on the data to see if continued low commodity prices eventually affect rural incomes.
