Dotting a map of the United States – in the Heartland and beyond – are 531 small towns. While consumer marketers and politicians call them Main Street, U.S.A, for economists and researchers, well, we call them micropolitan areas.
At the Walton Family Foundation, we have researched, reviewed and ranked the 531 micropolitan statistical areas nationwide – which have one or more counties with at least one city with more than 10,000 but less than 50,000 in population – using a new, comprehensive index to measure the vitality and viability of these small towns’ economic standing.
What we’ve learned is telling, both in the short and the long-term: Small-town America has big-time potential for economic renewal and revival.