Rural deserts

Read it this way The 5.5 million figure for no-or-limited-access counties is more than double the 2.3 million figure for full deserts alone, showing limited-access counties, not just full deserts, account for most of the affected population. The 150,000 births in a desert in 2022 is a separate flow measure and isn't part of these two population bars. Use this chart to distinguish current access loss from early warning indicators, then connect the evidence to the recommendation to intervene before a service-line loss becomes a full rural access desert.

March of Dimes, Nowhere to Go: Maternity Care Deserts Across the US, 2024 · 2024 · source

Read it this way Nearly two in three maternity care deserts sit in rural counties, confirming this is predominantly a rural-access problem, though the 38.5% urban share means it isn't exclusively one. This slice is from the 2022 report edition, one cycle earlier than the 35.1% desert-share headline used elsewhere on this dashboard. Use this chart to distinguish current access loss from early warning indicators, then connect the evidence to the recommendation to intervene before a service-line loss becomes a full rural access desert.

March of Dimes, Nowhere to Go: Maternity Care Deserts Across the US, 2022 · 2022 · source

Read it this way All six states shown sit well above the 35.1% national reference line, with North Dakota at 73.6%, more than double the national rate. This ranks only the worst states, so it can't show how many states fall below the national average. Use this chart to distinguish current access loss from early warning indicators, then connect the evidence to the recommendation to intervene before a service-line loss becomes a full rural access desert.

March of Dimes, Nowhere to Go: Maternity Care Deserts Across the US, 2024 · 2024 · source

Read it this way Even the best case shown, Kansas at 44%, means more than 4 in 10 of its rural hospitals are at closure risk, rising to 61% in Tennessee. This is a distinct 2026 financial-risk measure from the desert-share chart beside it, so a state can rank high here without necessarily ranking high on maternity-desert share. Use this chart to distinguish current access loss from early warning indicators, then connect the evidence to the recommendation to intervene before a service-line loss becomes a full rural access desert.

Chartis Center for Rural Health, 2026 Rural Health State of the State · 2026 · source

Read it this way The tallest bars cluster in 2015 and 2019-2020, and the visible dip at 2021 lines up with COVID relief funding rather than a real recovery, since totals climbed again right after. Because 2025 and 2026 are provisional, don't read the recent right-hand end of the chart as a confirmed slowdown yet. Use this chart to distinguish current access loss from early warning indicators, then connect the evidence to the recommendation to intervene before a service-line loss becomes a full rural access desert.

UNC Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, Rural Hospital Closures · 2026 · source

Read it this way The cumulative count rises across all three report editions, and the 331 total is about 27% of all rural OB units, so rural obstetric access has been shrinking continuously rather than stabilizing. Because each point is a cumulative total from a different report edition with a different window, the chart shows growing scale, not a year-by-year closure rate. Use this chart to distinguish current access loss from early warning indicators, then connect the evidence to the recommendation to intervene before a service-line loss becomes a full rural access desert.

Chartis Center for Rural Health, Rural Health State of the State (2024 to 2026 editions) · 2026 · source

Read it this way The share of rural hospitals in the red fell each year, from 50% to 41.2%, but the caveat shows that improvement rides on a still-thin national median margin, 1.0% in 2025 and 2.0% in 2026. So hospitals in the red are shrinking in number while the survivors remain financially fragile, not clearly turning a strong profit. Use this chart to distinguish current access loss from early warning indicators, then connect the evidence to the recommendation to intervene before a service-line loss becomes a full rural access desert.

Caveat The companion national median operating margin is not published for the 2024 report. Chartis reports it at 1.0% (2025) and 2.0% (2026), so the red-share improvement tracks a thin but recovering margin.

Chartis Center for Rural Health, Rural Health State of the State (2024 to 2026 editions) · 2026 · source

Read it this way Non-expansion states have a rural-hospital red-margin rate 17 points higher than expansion states, and the underlying margins run positive (+2.9%) in expansion states versus negative (-0.7%) in non-expansion states. This is an association tied to one policy variable, so it doesn't rule out other state-level differences accounting for part of the gap. Use this chart to distinguish current access loss from early warning indicators, then connect the evidence to the recommendation to intervene before a service-line loss becomes a full rural access desert.

Chartis Center for Rural Health, 2026 Rural Health State of the State · 2026 · source

Read it this way Maternity-desert residents can face drive times of up to 38 minutes, more than double the 16-minute US average, and even the rural average of 26 minutes runs well above the national figure. The desert figure is stated as a maximum ('up to'), so it isn't a strict apples-to-apples average like the other two bars. Use this chart to distinguish current access loss from early warning indicators, then connect the evidence to the recommendation to intervene before a service-line loss becomes a full rural access desert.

March of Dimes 2024, via Healthcare Brew · 2024 · source

Read it this way Both full deserts (13%) and low-access counties (11%) show a similarly elevated preterm-birth risk, so the effect isn't confined to the most extreme access gap. As the caveat states, this is an association: the chart can't establish that limited maternity access itself causes the higher preterm-birth rate. Use this chart to distinguish current access loss from early warning indicators, then connect the evidence to the recommendation to intervene before a service-line loss becomes a full rural access desert.

Caveat March of Dimes reports these as associations, not causal effects.

March of Dimes, Nowhere to Go: Maternity Care Deserts Across the US, 2024 · 2024 · source