Chart 1. The title is "Rural Counties in the Great Plains Have Shown Similar Bank Consolidation Trends as the Nation".

A dashed line represents Rural Counties Outside the Great Plains, a solid line represents Great Plains Rural Counties. Both rural and Great Plains counties showed a 50% decrease in bank consolidation trends between 1984 and 2002. Though rural counties maintained a slightly higher number of insured institutions over this eight-year period, both rural and Great Plains counties have consolidated their banks down to 54% and 52% respectively of what they were in 1984.