Matthew M. Brooks
@ruraldemography.bsky.social
Assistant Professor of Sociology at Florida State. Demographer and Rural Sociologist trying to research U.S. rural-urban inequality in poverty, family change, and health.
Ever wonder about what’s it like to grow up in rural America? So did we! @shelleydclark.bsky.social and I tackle two basic—but essential—questions in our new Journal of Marriage and Family article, just out today. Who do rural kids live with today? How likely are rural kids to grow up in poverty?
November 13, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Ever wonder about what’s it like to grow up in rural America? So did we! @shelleydclark.bsky.social and I tackle two basic—but essential—questions in our new Journal of Marriage and Family article, just out today. Who do rural kids live with today? How likely are rural kids to grow up in poverty?
Reposted by Matthew M. Brooks
Matt Brooks @ruraldemography.bsky.social points to unexpected changes in rural families that not only affect our understanding of who is poor in rural America but also how to address national child poverty. Join us for the next PSC Brown Bag live or on Zoom! psc.isr.umich.edu/events/zivin...
October 15, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Matt Brooks @ruraldemography.bsky.social points to unexpected changes in rural families that not only affect our understanding of who is poor in rural America but also how to address national child poverty. Join us for the next PSC Brown Bag live or on Zoom! psc.isr.umich.edu/events/zivin...
Wrote this for the conversation about immigrants in Florida, and whether the state is really experiencing an immigration crisis. And if it is, then what do we actually know about immigrants in the state.
Florida’s immigrant population is growing (both legal and undocumented) but recent illegal entries are shrinking.
Immigrants make up 22% of residents and play a vital role in the state’s booming economy.
theconversation.com/unpacking-fl...
Immigrants make up 22% of residents and play a vital role in the state’s booming economy.
theconversation.com/unpacking-fl...
Unpacking Florida’s immigration trends − demographers take a closer look at the legal and undocumented population
Florida has the third-largest population of immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally, but that population has been steadily shrinking since 2018.
theconversation.com
July 30, 2025 at 2:56 AM
Wrote this for the conversation about immigrants in Florida, and whether the state is really experiencing an immigration crisis. And if it is, then what do we actually know about immigrants in the state.
Reposted by Matthew M. Brooks
Our latest digest shares the work of @ruraldemography.bsky.social, @jtommueller.bsky.social, Brian C. Thiede, and Daniel T. Lichter examining the underappreciated role of diversity in nonmetropolitan areas and identifying patterns underlying recent changes to rural demographics.
Brooks et al.: Ethnoracial Diversity Across Nonmetropolitan America — The Rural Reconciliation Project
In Uneven Growth and Unexpected Drivers of Ethnoracial Diversity across Nonmetropolitan and Metropolitan America , Matthew M. Brooks (Sociology and Center for Demography and Population Health, Fl...
www.ruralreconcile.org
May 22, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Our latest digest shares the work of @ruraldemography.bsky.social, @jtommueller.bsky.social, Brian C. Thiede, and Daniel T. Lichter examining the underappreciated role of diversity in nonmetropolitan areas and identifying patterns underlying recent changes to rural demographics.
A few days late, but just want to say how I love going to PAA!
April 15, 2025 at 3:14 PM
A few days late, but just want to say how I love going to PAA!
🚨🚨🚨 Hot off the press! Shelley Clark and I wrote an Op-Ed in the Washington Post that’s out this morning about declining Marriage rates in rural America (and the potentially “misaligned” policy implications that go along with it).
Would love to hear your thoughts!
Would love to hear your thoughts!
I'm in the @washingtonpost.com today with my coauthor @ruraldemography.bsky.social Matthew Brooks talking about marriage and childbearing in rural America— and the outdated stereotypes that seem to be informing the new Trump transportation policy.
@mcgillumedia.bsky.social
wapo.st/42SavfP
1/3
@mcgillumedia.bsky.social
wapo.st/42SavfP
1/3
Opinion | In rural America, more women are saying ‘I don’t’
Do the Trump administration’s transportation guidelines disproportionately benefit small-town families?
wapo.st
February 12, 2025 at 2:13 PM
🚨🚨🚨 Hot off the press! Shelley Clark and I wrote an Op-Ed in the Washington Post that’s out this morning about declining Marriage rates in rural America (and the potentially “misaligned” policy implications that go along with it).
Would love to hear your thoughts!
Would love to hear your thoughts!
Reposted by Matthew M. Brooks
New Trump admin guidelines prioritize transportation spending and infrastructure for “communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average,” which many are reading as a shorthand for subsidizing white rural communities.
The truth is complicated.
tinyurl.com/DOTpolicy2025
1/
The truth is complicated.
tinyurl.com/DOTpolicy2025
1/
January 31, 2025 at 5:01 PM
New Trump admin guidelines prioritize transportation spending and infrastructure for “communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average,” which many are reading as a shorthand for subsidizing white rural communities.
The truth is complicated.
tinyurl.com/DOTpolicy2025
1/
The truth is complicated.
tinyurl.com/DOTpolicy2025
1/
We are now on our fourth day of snows days here. I did some thinking and I think that this might be more snow days than I got in undergrad and grad school combined.
And it might be the same amount I got all through high school (in Minnesota)!
And it might be the same amount I got all through high school (in Minnesota)!
January 23, 2025 at 8:02 PM
We are now on our fourth day of snows days here. I did some thinking and I think that this might be more snow days than I got in undergrad and grad school combined.
And it might be the same amount I got all through high school (in Minnesota)!
And it might be the same amount I got all through high school (in Minnesota)!