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Sources & photo credits

Every statistic on this site comes from a public source you can check, and every photograph is used under a public-domain dedication. Here they are.

Statistics

66.3 million Americans (20%) live in rural areas.U.S. Census Bureau, "Nation's Urban and Rural Populations Shift Following 2020 Census," December 2022. census.gov
63.1% of primary-care Health Professional Shortage Areas are rural.Health Resources & Services Administration, State of the Primary Care Workforce, 2025. bhw.hrsa.gov
More than 150 rural hospitals have closed or converted to non-inpatient models since 2010.UNC Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, Rural Hospital Closures tracker (154 closures and conversions since January 2010 at time of writing). shepscenter.unc.edu
Rural Americans live an average of 10.5 miles from the nearest hospital, versus 5.6 miles in suburbs and 4.4 miles in cities.Pew Research Center, "How far Americans live from the closest hospital differs by community type," December 2018. pewresearch.org
Heart-disease death rate of 189.1 per 100,000 in rural counties versus 156.3 in urban counties (2019).CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Data Brief No. 417, "Trends in Death Rates in Urban and Rural Areas: United States, 1999–2019." cdc.gov
48.1% of U.S. adults (119.9 million) have high blood pressure; about 1 in 4 (22.5%) have it under control.CDC, "High Blood Pressure Facts." cdc.gov
11.0 million U.S. adults have undiagnosed diabetes (27.6% of adults with diabetes); about 8 in 10 adults with prediabetes have not been told they have it.CDC, National Diabetes Statistics Report. cdc.gov
At least 41 Iowa hospitals have closed their labor-and-delivery units since 2000 — about a third of all Iowa hospitals, mostly rural.Tony Leys, "Rural Hospitals Built During Baby Boom Now Face Baby Bust," KFF Health News, July 15, 2024. kffhealthnews.org
16 rural Tennessee hospitals have closed or ended inpatient care since 2010 (second only to Texas, 26); 44% of Tennessee's remaining rural hospitals are vulnerable to closure.Chartis Center for Rural Health, 2025 Rural Health State of the State, drawing on UNC Sheps Center closure data. chartis.com
People in rural counties have a higher risk of dying early from the five leading causes of death.CDC, MMWR Surveillance Summaries 73(SS-2), "Preventable Premature Deaths from the Five Leading Causes of Death in Nonmetropolitan and Metropolitan Counties, United States, 2010–2022." cdc.gov

Figures were checked in September 2026. Agencies update their reports periodically; if a number here differs from the current source, the source wins.

Photographs

All landscape and town photographs on this site are by Carol M. Highsmith, from the Carol M. Highsmith Archive at the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Ms. Highsmith has placed her photographs in the public domain; the Library of Congress states there are no known restrictions on their publication. The Iowa photographs were made in 2016 and the Tennessee photographs in 2021.

Rolling hills and cornfields in Jackson County, Iowa — home page hero. loc.gov/item/2016630236
Sculpted cornfields in the rolling hills of Jones County — home page, mission. loc.gov/item/2016630526
Prairie Creek Christian Church in rural Benton County — home page, how a camp works. loc.gov/item/2016630257
Farmer Dean Folkmann on his hog farm in Benton County — home page mosaic. loc.gov/item/2016630364
Downtown Elkader, Iowa — home page mosaic; Host a Camp. loc.gov/item/2016630638
Old barn in the Smoky Mountain foothills of Sevier County, Tennessee — home page mosaic. loc.gov/item/2021756634
Cotton field near Stantonville, Tennessee — home page mosaic. loc.gov/item/2021756854
View high in the Tennessee portion of Great Smoky Mountains National Park — Our Sponsors hero. loc.gov/item/2021756628
Wind turbines in the cornfields outside Cedar Falls — home page mosaic. loc.gov/item/2016630594
Sunset over the cornfields of Franklin County — call-to-action bands. loc.gov/item/2016630591
Sunset over the cornfields of Butler County — Our Sponsors call-to-action. loc.gov/item/2016630507
Cornfield and hay rolls in Johnson County — Become a Sponsor hero. loc.gov/item/2016630615
Tidy Benton County farm — Become a Sponsor. loc.gov/item/2016630375
A farmstead of classic red barns and outbuildings near Cookeville, Tennessee — Host a Camp hero. loc.gov/item/2021756487
Rural fall scene near Hillsboro, Tennessee — Host a Camp. loc.gov/item/2021756782

Sponsor logos are the property of their respective owners and are used with permission. Icons and the Wellfield Health logo are original artwork © Wellfield Health, Inc. Typefaces: Fraunces (Undercase Type) and Source Sans 3 (Adobe), both under the SIL Open Font License via Google Fonts.