Carrying Rural Georgia to Greater Prosperity
David C. Bridges, Director
Georgia’s Center for Rural Prosperity and Innovation
March 2025
Background
I am frequently confronted with questions about conditions in rural Georgia. While the questions are framed quite differently, they often relate to economics, healthcare, education, job opportunities, poverty, and cultural amenities. Sometimes, I hear questions about rural Georgia framed more generically. Are conditions improving? Are conditions getting better? Are they getting worse? Sometimes, I ask the person with whom I am speaking if they can be more specific. Often, they cannot, but what I know from experience is that they are often referring to their observation that the general conditions related to life seem to be declining. They just simply don’t know a more precise way to frame the question.
Many have studied and written about what appears to be the demise of rural America. The demise is captured in statements about the declining population, poverty, and a perceived decline in quality of life. The pictures painted are often ones of despair, and not always about the conditions, but sometimes they reflect desperation because people just don’t know what to do to change course. Some have suggested that we need greater resilience among rural cities, but truthfully, many of Georgia’s rural cities have degraded to a point where resilience doesn’t really apply. They need revival, resurgence, and rebuilding. There is little to shore up.
Before taking on challenging projects or entering negotiations, I typically ask myself, what would be an ideal outcome? Sometimes, a more fitting question is, what would be an acceptable outcome? For those of us who value rural Georgia, what is the outcome that we hope for? Answer: prosperity! We are looking for prosperity in the broadest way.
What is prosperity? Admittedly, it is a term often used, but for which there isn’t common agreement on its meaning. Too often, the term prosperity is associated with wealth or financial means, but at the community level, it surely means much more.
Formed in 2006, the Legatum Group[1] undertook the mission to promote prosperity across the world. They realized immediately that measuring prosperity requires defining prosperity. While one can disagree with parts of their work, position, and programming, Legatum’s carefully considered rankings have become widely respected around the world because of the meticulous research they conduct around prosperity. Legatum’s 2023 publication states, “Prosperity is much more than money or wealth; it is about growth, opportunity, freedom, and responsibility. History reveals the foundations of prosperity, which are the beliefs, values, culture, and traditions that create virtuous people, trust-based societies, and strong nations. By understanding what has worked before, we can thoughtfully apply ancient wisdom to modern challenges, translating sound principles into better institutions and policies.”
Legatum’s work carefully distinguishes personal prosperity and social prosperity, otherwise known as community prosperity. Their comprehensive prosperity index considers twelve indicators and/or components of prosperity, or as they refer to them, pillars of prosperity.
In a separate forthcoming paper, The Georgia Prosperity Index, we introduce a set of pillars that we believe are key indicators of prosperity for Georgia’s rural communities. Using the pillars, we developed a model that permits quantification of “prosperity” in each of Georgia’s 159 counties. The Georgia Prosperity Index (GPI) clearly shows what others have noted: rural Georgia is lacking in prosperity! Urban areas and exurban areas in the State have prospered over the past 50 to 100 years, while more rural areas of the State have not.
What can be done to bring about greater prosperity across rural Georgia? I believe the answer lies in investment and commitment. What is critical is investment in repair and replacement of infrastructure, improvement of education and workforce, and healthcare. However, more money isn’t the lone solution. While money will certainly help, a commitment to improving the quality of life in these areas in a way that will attract people, industry, and private investment is the backbone of all efforts to bring about greater prosperity to these dying communities.
The fix - strategic and targeted investment
Enhancing prosperity in rural Georgia will happen when there is strategic and targeted investment in rural Georgia. This should begin with new investments by the State. The State of Georgia needs a multiphase rural development plan. Such a plan will consider all aspects of life, education, healthcare, economic opportunity, employment opportunity, quality of life issues, and the infrastructure required to support these needs.
The plan must include commitment over time, but it must be phased to have maximum positive impact.
Phase I should focus on identifying cities that have the greatest probability to increase prosperity over the next three to five years. We refer to these cities as hub cities. Phase I investment should focus on strengthening these hub cities, encouraging economic development, improving education and training, improving access to quality healthcare, and improving the social environment, all of which will increase community prosperity. Ensuring prosperity in hub cities will pave the way for investment in Phase II.
Phase II will capitalize on and extend the success and increased prosperity that occurs in the hub cities. It will focus on “spoke cities”, that is cities and towns that are adjacent to and economically connected to hub cities. Unlike hub cities, spoke cities may not be home to all the features of a nearby hub city, but they will be geographically close enough to access the expanded offerings of the hub city.
Phase III comes as prosperity spreads from hub cities to spoke cities, and the more distant and disadvantaged rim cities and communities see benefits due to their proximity to hub and spoke cities.
Several advantages are inherent to a multiphase hub-oriented investment strategy:
Preservation and strengthening – preserving and strengthening hub cities ensures that these regional centers of activity will prosper, grow, and serve their respective regions of the state by providing access to education, healthcare, economic opportunity, and job opportunities.
Maximize short-term return on investment – strategically investing in hub cities first will maximize short-term return on investment and will increase the probability of subsequent success with spoke cities.
Minimize duplicate investments – duplicated small investments in adjacent cities that are significantly lacking in resources that are essential for immediate development will prove to be unwise investments and will be minimized via the focus on hubs.
Invest sustainably over time – phasing investment will spread the cost of rural investment over time and will allow for increases in revenues associated with hub cities that will help support subsequent investments in spoke and rim cities.
Best practices – early investments will inform decision-makers on how to best make subsequent investments.
Identifying hub, spoke, and rim cities
Our work to quantify prosperity across Georgia’s 159 counties provided insight into the assets and liabilities of cities across the State of Georgia. Careful study, deliberation, and input by those who work in rural Georgia revealed several indicators that are common among cities that are already experiencing significant degrees of prosperity and might be considered hub cities (Table 1).
A preliminary list of hub cities is shown in Figure 2. This preliminary list can be the starting point for selecting an initial set of hub cities.
Spoke cities have not been identified at this time but will include cities that are immediately adjacent to hub cities and which would be reasonably expected to prosper because of the increased prosperity of the nearby hub city.
Finally, a hub cities strategy will work, but it will require both bottom-up and top-down planning. A comprehensive city plan and commitment developed with engagement among local officials, municipal leaders, county officials, law enforcement, school systems, higher education officials, health system leaders, and the business community is essential. Furthermore, engaging state representatives, state senators, state agencies, and federal agencies will also be required. Most importantly, Georgia’s legislative and executive branches must be willing to make a commitment to funding over a period of up to five years for this strategy to be successful. It is beyond time to start the planned investment in rural Georgia that will lead to greater prosperity for all Georgians.
[1] The 2023 Legatum Prosperity Index. 2023. Prosperity Institute. London, UK. https://index.prosperity.com/rankings
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