Rural America: Who’s getting younger?

August 5th, 2010 by

I doubt anyone is surprised by this news, but information published on the Daily Yonder confirms that much of the rural Midwest has continued to age.  Not all rural Midwestern counties, however, followed this trend.  Some got younger, including a handful of counties right here in South Dakota.

That’s good news for each of the counties that became younger.  But it’s also good news for those counties that became older; hopefully we can learn from these hipster counties.

What does the Daily Yonder article say?

Produced by Roberto Gallardo, the Daily Yonder article focuses on the proportional change in population under age 25 of all rural counties in the U.S during the last decade.  As the map to the right indicates, most rural counties (shown in red) experienced a decrease in the percentage of young people; those identified in blue became younger.  (source:  “Rural America inthe 2000s: Age,” Roberto Gallardo, Daily Yonder,  July 21, 2010.)

In total, nine rural South Dakota counties experienced an increase in the percentage of young people.  Those counties include:

Looking at the list, I’m a bit surprised.  I had expected to find Beadle and Brown Counties on the list, two counties benefiting from major new business startups in recent years, and reservation counties, where birth rates are typically higher.  I’m also surprised by just how “typical” these counties are.  Strike Clay and Brookings Counties, which house our state’s two largest universities, and the remaining counties are very similar to most rural counties in eastern South Dakota.

Why’s this important?

This research is timely for me because it comes on the heels of “The Rural Growth Trifecta” study, the most recent of a long line of studies emphasizing the importance of outdoor amenities to rural community development.  Comparing maps we can see that all of the South Dakota communities that grew younger rank low on the outdoor amenity scale used in “The Rural Growth Trifecta” study.

If outdoor amenities are key to attracting people to rural communities, and I agree they are, then why are these lower amenity counties getting younger?   I don’t have the answer to this question, but I’d sure like to know more.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Community Development, Rural | Comments ( 0 )

No comments yet

Leave a Reply