David via Wikimedia Commons

According to a new report, the population of rural America has now shrunk for the first time in 10 years.

As The Hill reports:

The number of Americans who live in rural areas declined in the last decade, the first time in history that the nation’s rural population dropped between one U.S. census and the next.

A new report from Kenneth Johnson, a demographer at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire, finds the number of Americans who live in rural communities dropped by 289,000 over the last decade, or just about 0.6 percentage points, not much more than a rounding error among the 46 million people who live in rural areas.

But it marks a significant slowdown from recent decades, when rural America added population. Between 1990 and 2000, rural communities added 3.4 million residents; those same areas added 1.5 million residents between 2000 and 2010.

“The actual size of the loss isn’t a particularly big deal,” Johnson said in an interview. “The fact that it actually happened, that rural America as a whole lost population, reflects a significant change. The question is, is it just a short-term thing, or is it a longer-term thing?”

Experts who were consulted suggested a number of factors contributed to the decline, including the after affects of the Great Recession which began in 2008.




Comments

  1. Our rural area and all those in this part of the free state of Florida are booming with new residence. Long live the Free State of Florida. Long Live our Guv-ner. FJB

      1. We moved from suburban Chicago to rural TN largely for this reason, though there were certainly others. It’s unlikely a mob will come to our acreage and try to burn anything, loot anything or hurt anyone; and if they do try, it won’t end well for them. FJB.

  2. S­t­a­r­t w­o­r­k­i­n­g f­r­o­m h­o­m­e! G­r­e­a­t w­o­r­k f­o­r-E­v­er, ­S­t­a­y a­t H­o­m­e M­o­m­s O­R a­n­y­o­n­e n­e­e­d­s­ a­n e­x­t­r­a i­n­c­o­m­e. G­e­t s­t­a­r­t­e­d. Y­o­u o­n­l­y n­e­e­d­ a computer a­n­d a reliable c­o­m­p­u­t­e­r c­o­n­n­e­c­t­i­o­n­ s­o d­o­n’t g­e­t l­a­t­e t­r­y…

    Read all about it here…

  3. Rural America is few due to loosing the biggest population before the millennials
    The Baby Boomers are now at that age. Since Covid we lost many. It is quiet Sad.

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