Rural America is no longer where many young college graduates want to settle, with some fleeing for urban centers like New York or San Francisco. Aside from the glamour of living in those locations, there may be another culprit for the rural “brain drain” that’s occurring across the U.S.: student loan debt.

Adults with student loans are less likely to remain in rural areas than those without it, and adults with the highest student loan balances are the most likely to migrate to cities, according to new research from the Federal Reserve. That’s contributing to a growing college attainment gap between urban and rural America, which has diverged from about 5 percentage points in 1970 to 14 percentage points in 2016.

By Aimee Picchi

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rural-americas-brain-drain-how-student-debt-is-emptying-small-towns/

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https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/03/us-towns-that-offer-financial-incentives-to-live-there.html