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| | Rural Texas In Transition |
 | | Among counties with relatively desirable natural amenities, the highest population and employment growth was recorded by those near large population centers, with their better access to jobs, education and other non-natural resources. |
 | | Counties adjacent to the largest metro areas, however, performed considerably better than even metro counties; counties outside of Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Fort Worth and El Paso saw their average unemployment rates fall by 1.6 percent between 1990 and 1999, from 5.4 percent to 3.8 percent. |
 | | Breaking down the adjacent counties into those next to the big six cities and those next to smaller metro areas reveals, however, that the real income growth was higher than the non-adjacent counties for the big metros but lower for the counties surrounding small metros. |
| www.window.state.tx.us /specialrpt/rural/2character.html (5250 words) |
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