Inequality of the Safety Net: The Rural-Urban Continuum, County-Level Poverty, and Nonprofit Human Services Expenditures

Using IRS-990 data from the National Center for Charitable Statistics, this study assesses differences in county expenditures on nonprofit human services, by level of county rurality, in American counties. It also examines the relationship between nonprofit human services expenditures and county-level poverty rates. The findings suggest that rural counties have a negative association with nonprofit human services expenditures as compared with urban counties after controlling for relevant covariates. There is intrarural heterogeneity: The most rural counties have the lowest rates of nonprofit human services expenditures and a negative association with nonprofit human services expenditures that persists after controlling for all covariates, whereas the most populous rural counties have relatively higher rates of expenditures. A negative association between county-level poverty and nonprofit human services expenditures is explained by the combination of county-level rurality and regional effects, underscoring the importance of policy attention to the underprovision of human services in rural counties.