Research Overview
Rural America has evolved significantly over the past two decades, yet dependable data remains limited, making it more challenging for local leaders to foster growth and innovation.
Latest Analysis
Our research and rural economic analysis are grounded in the principle that for small towns and communities to flourish, rural leaders must have access to data and insights that can guide their strategies and tech-driven economic initiatives.
Over the past two decades, rural America has experienced profound changes, and we are dedicated to leveraging data to provide research that captures this transformation and the opportunities it presents.
of all venture capital goes to rural businesses
of U.S. firms are located in rural America
Report: The Contribution of Broadband to Rural Economic Prosperity and Strength
Online Program Oversight in Rural Institutions: Opportunities & Barriers
Analytics, Mapping, and Information Tools
Data on rural communities is notoriously difficult to locate and utilize. Without accessible visualizations, maps, or raw datasets, economic development directors—often working with small teams—struggle to contextualize their region’s assets, making critical decisions about investments, strategies, and grant opportunities even more challenging.
This data gap also makes it harder for policymakers and philanthropic organizations to fully understand the vast and diverse landscape of rural America. When comprehensive data is unavailable, the media often relies on anecdotes, unintentionally reinforcing simplified narratives that fail to capture the complexity of rural communities.
The Analysts
Our goal is not just to make rural data accessible, but to broaden the conversation and reshape the narrative around what’s possible in rural America. We continuously update our resource center with the latest research, maps, and data, creating new visualizations to serve clients and tell compelling stories.
In collaboration with our funders and partners, our team of experienced economists, researchers, analysts, and software engineers works with rural data to provide a comprehensive view of the forces driving change in small towns and communities across the country.
Director of Research, Knowledge, and Evaluation
Amanda Weinstein, Ph.D.
Amanda leads the Research, Knowledge, and Evaluation team in providing a better understanding of the economic dynamics of rural America and evaluating our programs guiding communities towards tech-driven prosperity using rigorous analysis and real-world insight.
Researcher
Adam Dewbury, Ph.D.
Adam is the qualitative research expert on the SBC research team. From interviews to ethnographic research, his work helps flesh out the quantitative data work with nuances that can’t be captured with numbers.
Head of Data Analytics
Drew Rosebush
As a member of the mapping and data analytics team, Drew develops data tools to help define and execute analytics for the organization.
Data Scientist
Lindsey Elliott
Lindsey is a Data Scientist for the Simplify Business Consultancy. Specializing in sociology and quantitative methods, his research has examined rural communities, neighborhood and social cohesion, the criminal justice system, and law.
Lead Software Developer
John Hall
John has been coding professionally and personally for over a decade. Although he has specialized in web mapping and visualization for most of that time, his skills range from scripting simple utilities to crafting fullstack applications to spec.