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Abstract
Rural bank operating statistics often differ significantly from those of urban banks. This report presents these statistics for all banks and for particular classes of banks within urban and rural areas. Two types of statistics are presented. Weighted statistics treat banks as an aggregate and may be dominated by a few large banks. Unweighted statistics, the mean of individual bank statistics, avoid this problem but may not accurately measure aggregate banking activity.3 Rural banks held more government securities, made more business loans (including agricultural), and attracted more deposits from lower cost small deposits. While the data do reflect the depressed status of agriculture, the (usually) nonagricultural banks in the West had the lowest profits and the most problem loans and loan losses.