Economic conditions, marked by recession, had highly uneven impacts across rural areas

Recession severity and high child poverty by county, 2009-13. Mapped variable is score on recession index (a combination of change in the number employed and their median earnings over 1999-2013); the scale was divided into 3 parts based on the county ranking, so that a quarter of the counties fell into the lowest category, followed by a middle half, and a top quarter.