Americans Abandon the Heartland

Something that's always fascinating to me, at WSJ, "Population Leaves Heartland Behind: Census Shows Growth Fueled by Increasingly Diverse Metro Areas; in Kansas, a Small Town Tears Down Empty Homes":

Americans continued to abandon the nation's heartland over the past decade, moving into metropolitan areas that have grown less white and less segregated, the 2010 Census showed.

The U.S. population grew by 27 million over the decade, to 308 million. But growth was unevenly distributed. Metropolitan areas, defined as the collection of small cities and suburbs that surround an urban core with at least 50,000 people, accounted for most of the gain, growing 10.8% over the decade to 257.7 million people.

Rural areas, meanwhile, grew just 4.5% to 51 million. Many regions—from the Great Plains to the Mississippi Delta to rural New England—saw population declines. About 46% of rural counties lost population in the decade, including almost 60% of rural counties that aren't adjacent to a metro area, according to an analysis of Census data by Kenneth Johnson, senior demographer at the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire.

Keep reading at the link above.

Small-town life is the repository of traditional values, so it's sometimes sad to see the rural towns declining. I developed a feel for the rural life living in Fresno, and I've noted a couple of times at the blog that I've thought about relocating. It won't be anytime soon, since I'm not near retirement, but I think about it. I know my wife would consider rural Central California north of Fresno, but I'm thinking we might like it out of state. I'll think more about this. Some readers have warned me that I'll get tired of small-town life in no time ...