The concentration of people, jobs and earnings in Nebraska’s metropolitan counties has been well documented. In the year 2000, the state’s six metropolitan counties were home to 52 percent of the population, while generating 57 percent of all jobs and 63 percent of all earnings in the state. This trend toward geographic concentration has been very pronounced in the last twenty years, with the gap
... [Show full abstract] between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan portions of the state growing at an accelerating rate. This trend implies broad implications for rural development in the state.