The Rural Blog
Census Bureau statistics released this week “portray dense, diverse and growing metropolitan areas, while rural areas struggle to grow – or even hold on to their populations.
That will have implications as states use the data to redraw their congressional boundaries in upcoming months, shifting political power and representation among their residents,” Matthew Brown reports for USA Today.
Rural population loss could make it more difficult for some areas to get federal funding, since areas without a large enough population can be shut out of certain programs and spending.
News reports said that counties around Kentucky’s largest cities registered big gains while rural counties suffered losses — and Appalachia had steep declines.
Kentucky’s overall population increased 3.8% toa bout 4.5 million people. Boone County place third as top growing Kentucky counties.
Fifty-seven Kentucky counties posted population gains. Kenton is now the third most-popular county in the state.
The new data showed, as expected, that the white population of the U.S. declined for the first time, though they remain the majority in most counties.
A map showing the second-most prevalent race or ethnicity in each county illustrated the growth of Hispanic and multi-racial Americans.
Here are some other highlights of the report:
• Metropolitan areas grew by 9 percent while non-metropolitan areas grew 1%.
• Fewer than half of the nation’s counties grew in population.
• Even in rapidly growing states, rural counties on average lost population while rural and suburban counties outpaced expected growth.
• Overall population growth is slowing: the U.S. population grew by 7.4%, down from 9.7 in the last decennial census.
