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Many Counties Have Both Outmigration
and Natural Decline
Calvin
L. Beale
In many Farm Belt counties,
losses in farm-related jobs have not
been offset by new types of jobs, resulting
in a well-known trend of population
loss. What is less known is that nearly
500 nonmetro counties with recent population
outmigration also have more deaths than
births—known as natural decline—and
thus are losing people from two sources.
Natural decline stems both from dwindling
family size and prolonged outmigration
of young adults, resulting in high average
age. This phenomenon has spread somewhat
into the lower South and is now common
in parts of Appalachia, where it also
affects many diminished metro industrial
areas. The condition, which did not
arise overnight, poses difficult development
challenges.
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