Around Idaho and the West, cities often are growing rapidly while rural places are being left behind. In urban areas, employment today is higher than before the recession, whereas in rural areas jobs have not yet recovered.
As elected officials discuss how to reinvigorate the rural West, some have pointed to federal lands as the cause of economic struggles.
Headwaters Economics asked whether federal lands are an economic liability or an asset to rural communities. We divided the rural West’s 276 counties into four quarters, according to their share of federal land.
On average, from 1970 to 2014, rural counties in the top quarter of federal land grew much faster than similar counties in the bottom quarter of federal land: Population grew four times faster, employment grew three times faster and personal income grew twice as fast…,
