Rural development policy since the 1960's has sought to arrest economic decline in rural areas and reduce the disparity between rural and urban incomes. And between 1968 and 1975, some progress was made. During this period, personal income in nonmetro counties grew 25 percent faster than in metro counties, reversing a trend during the fifties and sixties. Nonmetro income grew substantially faster than metro income in all regions except the South, but even there, nonmetro counties had a slight growth advantag
