ANDERSON — Madison County is like a rural area when it comes to community vitality, according to a report by the Indiana University Public Policy Institute.
The study found that struggling Hoosier counties are mostly rural, due to their distance from major metropolitan centers. Many rural counties are designated as the "most challenged" in the state, according to the report.
However, the study also noted that Madison County, which has a large enough population to be considered urban, was the only non-rural county that fell into the category as among the "most challenged."
"Madison County had such a strong commitment to the automobile industry and that the economic restructuring affected Madison County as much as any county in the state of Indiana," said the study's author, John Marron, senior policy analyst at the institute.
Between 1990 and 2010, Indiana lost 25 percent of its manufacturing jobs while Madison County lost 75 percent, Marron said.
"It's a domino effect. You lost auto manufacturing, which is the base of your economy so other jobs supported by that tend to go away, which means less economic opportunity. Some folks move away. The folks that remain sometimes have less opportunities and it starts a snowballing effect," Marron said.
That phenomena put Madison County in a category along with rural counties such as Blackford and Miami. Rural counties, the report found, not only have modest economic activity but are distant from major metropolitan centers, making it more challenging to benefit from economic opportunities in other parts of the state.
But Madison County is next door to Hamilton County, which had the most top rankings in the "Community Vitality Index," the latest report in the institute's "Thriving Communities, Thriving State" project.
The report underscores the fact that local economic recovery takes time, said Rob Sparks, executive director of the countywide Corporation for Economic Development. The county is undergoing a transition from the auto jobs of 50 years ago to a new era of technology-related work.
Sparks noted that about 80 percent of Madison County can be considered rural, mostly in the middle and north sections of the county.
The report recommends that struggling counties seek multi-county regional strategies for development as a way to also compete nationally.
Sparks said that collaborations are underway with regional entities.
"We hope to have more jointly-focused projects that might benefit both us and some of the other counties," he said.
For the study, Marron replicated a similar national report conducted by The New York Times in 2014. Indiana-specific data was matched with the "Thriving Communities" framework, Marron evaluated how community vitality is represented in urban, rural and mid-sized communities and in 11 regions around the state.
Madison County was placed in a region reaching Hamilton, Marion and Johnson counties, among others.
Data included each county's estimated housing costs relative to median household income, education attainment, unemployment rate, disability benefits use rate, life expectancy and obesity.
Counties experiencing greater challenges shared a number of similarities, including being located outside of major employment centers, high unemployment rates of and disability payments.
"It's immediately apparent how well counties with mid-sized communities fare relative to urban and rural counties," said Marron.
"Perhaps what is more interesting, however, is seeing the impact of regional hubs within regions. The Indianapolis, Evansville, Fort Wayne and South Bend regions fare relatively well throughout their entire regions, while the Muncie and Terre Haute regions seem to be experiencing greater challenges.
He added, "This would be unsurprising if the index only included economic measures, but the measures seem to hold true across measures of health and well-being as well."