Changes in the Number of Commercial Bank Branches in Rural Areas

Gerald Mashange

farmdoc daily, 2025, vol. 14, issue 176

Abstract: The number of commercial bank branches in rural areas has steadily declined over the past decade, raising concerns about the availability and accessibility of financial services in these communities. Between 2012 and 2017, over 40% of rural counties lost bank branches, with some counties experiencing substantially more declines (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2019). Compared to the rest of the country, rural Americans have a higher reliance on brick-and-mortar bank branches, more limited access to the Internet and online banking options, and a greater likelihood of living in banking deserts (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 2022). Furthermore, people living in rural areas are disproportionately affected by this trend, having to travel farther to access banking services, with the median distance to the nearest branch being 0.64 miles away following a closure, compared to 0.18 miles in urban areas (Dahl et al., 2021). In this farmdoc article, we examine the trends in the number of commercial bank branches in rural counties between 1994 and 2023.

Keywords: Agribusiness; Agricultural Credit; Financial Management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:illufd:358430

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.358430

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