Rural America gained people last year, thanks to migration to near-metro counties; most rural counties kept losing

Screenshot of Daily Yonder map; for interactive version with county data, click here.

In an evolving shift, "The nation's rural population grew slightly last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. While the increase was small, it is one more indication that historic losses in non-metropolitan population in the 2010s have been reversed for the time being," report Tim Marema and Sarah Melotte of The Daily Yonder. "Domestic and international migration drove the growth in the rural population in 2022," but the growth was in counties near metropolitan areas, not remoter rural counties.

"Red America is growing because blue America is shrinking," Philip Bump of The Washington Post writes after looking at the Census Bureau report through a political lens. "Rural America is dying faster than it is producing new children. . . . Nearly 645,000 residents of rural counties died while only 494,000 were born."

The Yonder reports the overall numbers: "The number of people living in non-metropolitan counties grew by 56,000 from 2021 to 2022. That's an increase of 0.12%, about the same as rural America's population gain two years ago, according to the annual Census population estimates."

Maps of the data illustrate regional gains and losses, the Yonder notes: "The Intermountain West from New Mexico north to the Canadian border saw population gains in the last year. Other regional growth patterns are obvious in eastern Texas, southwest Missouri; Florida; Tennessee, northern Georgia, and the western half of North Carolina; and New Hampshire and Maine. . . . . Another interesting pattern of growth is evident in parts of rural Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. . . . Rural regions with noticeable population loss or stagnation include the Mississippi Delta, New York, Appalachia from East Kentucky to New York, and portions of the Great Plains from Texas to North Dakota."

Washington Post map shows changes in county population, with size of dots reflecting actual numbers.