Census Shows Bounce in Rural Areas

The trend in shrinking populations in farming and manufacturing counties appears to have reversed. Census data suggests some rural communities are growing.

“This seems to be the beginning of a return to population dispersal after a decade or so of clustering into cities and the biggest metropolitan areas,” said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution.

Steady improvement in the economy and recovering housing markets may be prompting employers and job seekers to look again at areas that were growing before the Great Recession—suburbs, exurbs and small towns, Frey said.

Rural areas gained population between 2016 and 2017 for the first time since 2010. They grew by about 33,000 residents nationwide, after losing more than 15,000 residents the year before.

Heavily agricultural areas also have grown in the last two years. Those areas likely still have fewer jobs but may be attractive to people seeking to retire or cut costs, said Doug Farquhar with the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Population decline has hit most rural areas hard since 2010. Nebraska and Kansas have tried tax incentives to attract movers. Many small towns have had to cut back services or deliver them in combination with neighboring towns as the number of taxpayers has dwindled.

Counties with a town of at least 10,000 people have turned the corner fastest.

Source: Stateline.org