Rural

When the Federal Reserve convenes at the end of January 2023 to set interest rates, it will be guided by one key bit of data: the U.S. inflation rate.

With housing [making up around a third](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/14/heres-why-it-may-take-a-while-for-housing-inflation-to-cool-off.html) of the consumer price index, these cost advantages work in favor of rural residents. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com) under a Creative Commons license. [More rural Americans own their homes](https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2017/09/rural-home-ownership.html) than city dwellers. [dwindling in number, with dollar stores taking their place](https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2021/december/rural-counties-losing-share-of-grocery-stores-gaining-other-types-of-food-retailers/). [rural counties trend older](https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/10/older-population-in-rural-america.html) – part of the effect of younger residents migrating to cities and college towns for either work or educational reasons. experienced through much of 2022](https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/29/energy/oil-gas-prices-2022/index.html#:%7E:text=Fuel%20prices%20in%202022%20were,a%20recent%2018%2Dmonth%20low.) – are likely to disproportionately affect rural residents given the necessity and [greater distances of driving](https://wolfstreet.com/2021/08/13/miles-driven-in-america-show-the-shifts-brought-on-by-the-pandemic-rural-is-in-urban-not-so-much-mass-transit-is-out/). Anecdotal evidence also suggests [gas prices can be](https://www.marketplace.org/2022/08/30/in-rural-areas-the-high-cost-of-diesel-is-driving-up-the-cost-of-doing-business/) [higher in rural communities](https://www.wqow.com/news/you-ask-we-answer/you-ask-we-answer-why-are-gas-prices-sometimes-higher-in-rural-areas/article_607a2f3e-abc3-11ec-b4eb-db25ebbc791a.html) than in urban areas. inflation rate](https://www.bls.gov/cpi/). During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a [huge increase in used car prices](https://www.whec.com/archive/consumer-alert-used-car-prices-skyrocketing-due-to-covid-19/) as a result of a lack of new vehicles due to supply chain constraints. population](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/05/22/demographic-and-economic-trends-in-urban-suburban-and-rural-communities/), or around 46 million people. In upper Midwest states as of 2018, nearly 25 percent of workers in the most remote rural counties commute 50 miles (80 kilometers) or more, compared with just over 10 percent or workers in urban counties. [economists who study](https://newsmediarelations.colostate.edu/contacts/stephan-weiler/) [rural America](https://aae.wisc.edu/faculty/tconroy2/), we believe this poses a problem: People living outside America’s cities represent [14 percent of the U.S.