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.

Non-paywall link

  • CherenkovBlue
    4528·
    5 months ago

    Really? That’s your go-to glib answer? No discussion about education opportunities or job prospects? No question about why the downturn was really noted in 2014? Just immediately jumping to the conclusion that rural people MUST be hateful?

    Disappointing.

    • lennybird@lemmy.worldEnglish
      682·
      5 months ago

      Look I’m from such a small Pennsylvania town. Rural Appalachian. Coal mines and specialty steel production most notably.

      Both of you are right, and the problems feed back into each other to some extent.

      After my family migrated west more than a decade ago, every single time we go back to PA to visit family, attend a funeral and so forth — it just keeps looking more and more run down. Honestly the place is a shit-hole nowadays. I’m sad to see my old county went for Trump by 70%. You couldn’t pay me enough to move my family back.

      The young, educated, smart, and compassionate folks leave and GTFO asap — both for jobs, and for more diversity and tolerance. The sad part is I remember watching a slew of documentaries in the early 2000s forewarning of what would happen to these small-towns…

      • Because of shipping manufacturing off elsewhere.
      • Because of big box corporate eating up local shops, eroding community and draining out the money.
      • Because administrations were unwilling to break the hard news that things like coal mines wouldn’t last forever and we’d have to help retrain and get them to new modern job sectors.

      No doubt these communities feel the pressures they’re complaining about; they’ve just been exploited by right-wing media about who is responsible: the southern migrant more desperate than them, the trans, the homosexuals, the liberals, etc…

      @FlyingSquid is also right that there is FAR more bigotry among these communities as well; and that ties back to not being well-traveled, our education system collapsing, and the right-wing fearmongering machine.

      Edit: Shit, Inside Out 3 should be about being inside the head of a MAGA supporter.

    • pixeltree@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      342·
      5 months ago

      Uhhhhh, I don’t care much for their response either but like a solid 80% of rural houses are flying trump flags, even in states like new york. You can pretty safely assume that old rural people are hateful.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      399·
      5 months ago

      You’re right, it’s probably one of those rural Republican-voting towns full of residents who love queer people and migrants.

    • coffeecoffeecoffee89@lemmy.world
      202·
      5 months ago

      I left because of the bigotry and hate. I work remotely and don’t have kids. That is the only thing stopping me.

      Diversity leads to education opportunities and jobs. Hate and discrimination are the reason there are no jobs and shitty education. Please stop white washing our society. The hate is a cancer.

    • Dkarma@lemmy.world
      162·
      5 months ago

      When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time…and every time after.

      These assholes don’t change.

    • tiredofsametab@kbin.run
      1·
      5 months ago

      That was true of the small Ohio town I grew up in. Tons of anti-semitism, racism, hatred of non-straights, hatred of non-christians, etc. Most of the jobs were in agriculture and manufacturing. I no longer live in the US but, if I had to move back, I don’t think you could pay me enough to live in that place again.

    • EatATaco@lemm.eeEnglish
      934·
      5 months ago

      This thread is filled with close minded, bigoted people shitting on people for being close minded and bigoted. It would be funny if it wasn’t so terribly tragic.

      But you seem new here. This is pretty typical for Lemmy. So I guess I should say welcome. Lol

      • harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        154·
        5 months ago

        The existence of close minded, bigoted people automatically renders them in violation of just about every societal norm and contract.

        Punching a racist/homophobe/terf/Mazi is always justified. Their existence is a threat to others because of their beliefs.

        Would you tell an abused spouse to tolerate or be less close minded about being hit or emotionally abused?

        Go f off with your fence sitting.

        • EatATaco@lemm.eeEnglish
          410·
          5 months ago

          You’re confusing my lack of a double standard with fence sitting.

          One person being bigoted and close minded doesn’t preclude other people from also being bigoted and close minded.

          I could be a racist piece of shit and drop the n word. If a black person then turns around and calls all white people racist pieces of shit, we’re both bigots.

          I’m not tolerating bigotry, I’m calling it all out. It’s you, right here, that’s defending bigotry. Not me.

          • negativeyoda@lemmy.world
            1·
            5 months ago

            I could be a racist piece of shit and drop the n word. If a black person then turns around and calls all white people racist pieces of shit, we’re both bigots

            Except… 2 people being assholes when the power dynamic is still very stilted is NOT a level playing field. Context matters. You’re not some enlightened sigma with this hot take.

            Suffer a few generations of systemic oppression and you might get the parity you think you have

            • EatATaco@lemm.eeEnglish
              12·
              5 months ago

              I didn’t say the playing field was level; I understand that I’ve been granted many benefits due to my race and sex.

              I said they are both bigots. Are you really arguing that a black guy saying all white people are pieces of shit is not a bigot?

          • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
            34·
            5 months ago

            But youre analog doesnt working with most social bigotries. There arent many folks who are say gay or trans who hate cis or straught folks. Sure an antifascist may want to set a Nazi on fire and watch them slowly die, but the track record of fascists as a whole is covered in so much blood ya cant see a record.

            The closest ya may get is someone like myself who hates say the Seventh Day Adventist to the point that it seems like bigotry, but even then bigotry is usually irrational I hate them because of a long list of slights both big and small against my family going back a hundred years. Also theyre cultists.

            Ya aint calling out a double standard, tolerance is a social contract if broken civility is right out. When we dont have civility we have savager, the rules of savagery is violence be it social, verbal, economic, psychological, or physical.

        • EatATaco@lemm.eeEnglish
          11·
          5 months ago

          I’m not saying to be tolerant of intolerance. This thread is filled with people shitting on people from rural areas, and being extremely prejudiced.