Rural counties in the US lose population overall for first time, according to Census estimates (how much, Pennsylvania)

[tablemtn]

The Census department estimates that "non-metropolitan" counties in the US lost population between 2010 and 2012, which is apparently the first time this has happened since the Census began estimating such things.

Nonmetro Areas as a Whole Experience First Period of Population Loss

The number of people living in nonmetropolitan (nonmetro) counties now stands at 46.2 million--15 percent of U.S. residents spread across 72 percent of the land area of the U.S.* Population growth rates in nonmetro areas have been lower than those in metro areas since the mid-1990s, and the gap widened considerably in recent years.

How is Rural America Changing? US Census Bureau newsroom

While some rural counties have been losing population for a long time, this survey sums up all such counties.

What are the implications for the country? As much as we think of frontiers or countryside, the US continues to urbanize, and it appears as though the "back to the country" movement that began in the late-60's and continued into the 1990's has faded out.

This is the opposite of what some had predicted - the thinking was, with the rise of the internet, people would be able to live anywhere they wanted to live, and still be able to hold down a decent job, thanks to telecommuting. Instead, technology appears to encourage people to aggregate themselves together into metro areas. Not necessarily the biggest metro areas, but ones big enough to provide a contrast with small towns and countryside.

What are the implications for the future demographics of the US, if these trends continue to hold?

For reference, here's the Census Department's map of nonmetropolitan counties:



So while not all rural counties are losing population, most are, and the overall direction of population change is one of decline.

[SoHoVe]

Interesting.
However some (if not many) of what this considers metropolition counties are actually wht I would consider rural and I think many folks would agree. Look how much of Cali is NOT considered rural by this... vast amounts of California are agri cultural or desert yet the counties are considered "metropoliton". Same with Texas...many of the counties surrounding houston (harris county) ARE rural...cattle still outnumber people in the county I live in (no feedlots...ranch raised cattleL and yet by this it isn't rural???

Interesting graphic but I think it could be considered misleading.

[2nd trick op]

Somebody said it a long time ago -- "Figures don't lie, but liars can figure."

The only reason this supposed aberration turned up is the reclassification of various counhties from "rural" to "suburban" and the assorted finagling with the various desgnations of "Metropolitian Statistical Areas". A number of those formerly rural areas (Monroe County, Pennsylvania -- the Poconos -- for which I helped t compile Census data three years ago, is one that comes immediately to mind) are actually crazy-quilt of various segments of society --some "true rural", some exurban, and most somewhere in between. Nor is the impact of some of the more-recetly-evolved "specialized communiies" -- those dependent on a college or other government facility, fully counted.

People will continue to move to where the opportuities -- and the money -- are found. and for the present time, that trend seems to be increasingly dependent upon the whims and changes in thonking of tose at the levers of power. Not a completely healthy idea for a nation increasingly compelled to compete on a global scale.