Question

Why are poverty rates in rural areas higher than the average?

Answer 1

because it is in a more expensive invirenment and nothing is a free market

Answer 2

A combination of less access to higher education, employment and an effect called "brain drain" in which higher ability people migrate to cities where they can command higher wages than if they had remained in the rural environment. Also cost of living is a factor as well - so employers don't have to pay as high a wage for the same job as in urban regions.