Rural population creeps up for second year in a row; see county-level data - Entrepreneur Generations

Daily Yonder map using U.S. Census Bureau data; click the image to enlarge it.

The population in nonmetropolitan counties grew slightly for the second year in a row, though mostly in rural counties near cities, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Wednesday. Between 2-17 and 2018, rural counties added about 37,000 residents for a total of 46.1 million nationwide, Tim Marema reports for The Daily Yonder.

"That’s a gain of about 0.1 percent, according to a report from demographer Kenneth M. Johnson at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy. The rate of growth is roughly the same as the growth rate from 2016 to 2017, when nonmetropolitan counties added 33,000 residents," Marema reports. "While the gains for nonmetropolitan America were scant, they continue to reverse the historic drop in nonmetropolitan population that occurred from 2011-16."

Rural growth still lags behind metro areas' growth, as the overall U.S. population grew by 0.6 percent between 2017 and 2018. About half of nonmetropolitan counties gained population, but about three quarters of metropolitan counties did, Marema reports.

The growth stems from several factors. Johnson said it's a combination of positive net migration and more births than deaths. The report found that "the fastest growing counties have recreational and scenic amenities that attract migrants including retirees from elsewhere in the United States" and said farm counties generally had more people leave than move in, Marema reports.

from The Rural Blog http://bit.ly/2VfGX9q Rural population creeps up for second year in a row; see county-level data - Entrepreneur Generations

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