Another example of local reporting on rural population decline, in three states

Population continues to decline in rural areas across the country. Last month we reported new  census estimates that deaths are exceeding births in 36 percent of rural counties (1,135 of 3,143). We then noted local reports on the trend in Nebraska, Oregon and Idaho. Now, Gary Rotstein of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes about the phenomenon in southwest Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio and West Virginia.

Twenty-two of 24 counties in the tri-state area, excluding Pittsburgh and Morgantown, home of West Virginia University, lost population between 2000 census and 2010, "and continued to shrink again in the next two years," Rotstein notes. (Post-Gazette map)

The "areas tend to be older, to attract few immigrants, to have low birth rates and to lose many of their young people to (Pittsburgh or Morgantown) or other places where they sense greater economic opportunities than in their hometowns. In most of those rural areas, more people die than are born each year," Rotstein reports.

Jonathan Johnson, senior policy analyst for the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, told Rotstein, "Western Pennsylvania is not alone in this. If you look at all of Appalachia, if you look at eastern Ohio, the traditional Rust Belt, you see a similar thing, out-migration and more deaths than births. This has not been happening overnight. You're not going to see tumbleweeds going down the street or anything like that. It's a slow, incremental process -- these places cannot grow naturally." (Read more)