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"SNARL" The Social N' Agricultural Resource Lab is a collection of resources provided by the Department of Community and Leadership Development
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The Rural Price Project |
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If you bought the same item in a rural and an urban area, would the price be the same?
This webpage is designed to provide information on the Rural Price Project being conducted at the University of Kentucky, College of Agriculture by:
Dept. of Community and Leadership Development and Department of Nutrition and Food Science |
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If you bought the same item in a rural and an urban area, would the price be the same?
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It’s a new take on an old question. It is also the question behind the Rural Price Project.
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While a popular perception is that the cost of living is lower in rural areas, research comparing prices in rural and urban areas is fairly limited. Although research on food suggests that grocery prices are higher in rural areas, even fewer have looked at nonfood prices. Part of the reason for this is that cost of living is a hard thing to measure. After all, what is important for one person, may not be important for another. How much you purchase and what you purchase depends on how many people are in your family. It also varies with decisions that you make. For example, do you buy brand names or generic brands? Do you buy items in bulk? Do you only buy things on sale or with coupons? Do you eat out a lot or do you mostly cook at home? It is also hard to measure because some items are so variable in price, they are hard to compare. Insurance rates, for instance, depend heavily on your characteristics such as your driving record, your credit score, or where you work. Some services have so many options that it’s hard to compare prices at all. For other items, the price depends on how much you use it. This is the case with long distance phone service. And then there is the challenge of accounting for items that are critical in one area but not in others. So, when we developed the Rural Price Project, we decided to take a different approach and ask: If you bought the same thing in a rural and an urban area, would you find the same price? Add the prices up, and you start to get at a local cost of living, but not entirely. That’s why we are also interested in ‘the rest of the story.’ For instance, if you wanted to see a movie that has just been released, how far would you have to drive and how long would it take you to get there? To research local prices, we are using a national list of goods and services for which prices are regularly gathered. While some larger rural areas (called micropolitan areas) are included in that research, their focus is on comparing across urban areas. Using a grant from the Southern Rural Development Center and a Research Activity Award from the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, we are working with county Cooperative Extension agents and local community groups in eight rural counties across the state to gather local rural prices.
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If you would like more information on the Rural Price Project, contact:
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To learn more about our grant proposal: CLICK HERE
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Questions/Comments · Copyright ©
An Equal Opportunity University,
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