Census shows record 1 in 3 U.S. counties seeing population declines

A record number of U.S. counties and parishes—more than 1 in 3—are now dying off, diminished by an aging population and weakened local economies that are spurring young adults to seek jobs and create families elsewhere, according to new U.S. census estimates released today. The 2012 estimates highlight the population shifts as the U.S. encounters its most sluggish growth levels since the Great Depression. The findings also reflect the increasing economic importance of foreign-born residents as the U.S. ponders an overhaul of a major 1965 federal immigration law. Without new immigrants, many metropolitan areas—including New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh and St. Louis—would have posted flat or negative population growth in the last year. With a slowly improving U.S. economy, young adults are now back on the move, departing traditional big cities to test the job markets mostly in the South and West, which had sustained the biggest hits in the housing bust. Also seeing big declines now are rural and exurban areas, along with industrial sections of the Rust Belt. Census data show that 1,135 of the nation’s 3,143 counties are now experiencing “natural decrease,” where deaths exceed births. That’s up from roughly 880 U.S. counties, or 1 in 4, in 2009. Already apparent in Japan and many European nations, natural decrease is now increasingly evident in large swaths of the U.S. Despite the eclipsing of births by deaths, the U.S. population as a whole continues to grow, boosted by immigration from abroad and relatively higher births among the mostly younger migrants from Mexico, Latin America and Asia. Many more details from today’s report can be found in the full story by The Associated Press here.