This report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation is an extension of the work on a Minimum Income Standard (MIS) for the UK, exploring how needs and costs vary for rural households. It extends the MIS UK research to consider what rural households need to afford the same standard of living as their urban counterparts.  

One of the key findings suggests that in the UK, pensioner couples need more income to live on in rural areas than pensioner couples in urban areas. In a rural town, the minimum income standard is 1% higher than urban areas, but in a village it is 19% higher and in a hamlet, 22% higher. The research shows that transport is the major factor in the additional cost of living – 60-100% of the additional costs in rural areas are due to transport.