There is a deepening sense of fear as population loss accelerates in rural America. The decline of small-town life is expected to be a looming topic in the presidential election.

There is a deepening sense of fear as population loss accelerates in rural America. The decline of small-town life is expected to be a looming topic in the presidential election.

…

America’s rural population began contracting about a decade ago, according to statistics drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau.

A whopping 81 percent of rural counties had more deaths than births between 2019 and 2023, according to an analysis by a University of New Hampshire demographer. Experts who study the phenomena say the shrinking baby boomer population and younger residents having smaller families and moving elsewhere for jobs are fueling the trend.

According to a recent Agriculture Department estimate, the rural population did rebound by 0.25 percent from 2020 to 2022 as some families decamped from urban areas during the pandemic.

But demographers say they are still evaluating whether that trend will continue, and if so, where. Pennsylvania has been particularly afflicted. Job losses in the manufacturing and energy industries that began in the 1980s prompted many younger families to relocate to Sun Belt states. The relocations helped fuel population surges in places like Texas and Georgia. But here, two-thirds of the state’s 67 counties have experienced a drop in population in recent years.

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  • @[email protected]English
    4•6 months ago

    Website example was a small private company with no investors. Like wtf? literally had to redo every web page and suddenly no one cares about the time spent. 6 months earler all huff and puffin “well India says they can do it in a month”. Worst part is they won’t acknowledge the months of work the US team put in to fix website. They only cared they had something even if it was trash.

    • Maeve
      1•6 months ago

      Boondoggles/prolifrigates proliferate, unfortunately.

        • Maeve
          1•6 months ago

          Basically that people and companies will spend a lot to save a little.

            • Maeve
              1•6 months ago

              My best guess? A need to protect the image they’ve constructed to obscure the true self, which probably isn’t all that bad, in reality, but feels a misplaced need to compete with the images others have constructed that obscure their true selves. There’s a lot to be said for manners, but there’s a notable difference between authenticity and faux ego.