Rural population of U.S. creeps up for the second year in a row; county-level data are available

The population in non-metropolitan counties grew slightly for the second year in a row, mostly in rural counties near cities, according to Census Bureau data released Wednesday. From 2017 to 2018, rural counties added about 37,000 residents for a total of 46.1 million nationwide, Tim Marema reports for The Daily Yonder.

"That’s a gain of about 0.1 percent, according to a report from demographer Kenneth M. Johnson at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy. The rate of growth is roughly the same as the growth rate from 2016 to 2017, when nonmetropolitan counties added 33,000 residents," Marema reports. "While the gains for nonmetropolitan America were scant, they continue to reverse the historic drop in nonmetropolitan population that occurred from 2011-16."

Daily Yonder map using U.S. Census Bureau data; click the image to enlarge it.

Rural growth still lags behind metro areas' growth; the overall U.S. population grew by 0.6 percent from 2017 to 2018. About half of nonmetropolitan counties gained population, while about three quarters of metropolitan counties did, Marema reports.

The growth is largely a combination of net migration and more births than deaths. The report found that "The fastest growing counties have recreational and scenic amenities that attract migrants including retirees from elsewhere in the United States" and said farm counties generally had more people leave than move in, Marema reports.