The rural exodus accelerates (Plains: for sale, houses, job market)

[GraniteStater]

The new data that just came out from the CB shows a steepening acceleration of out-migration from rural areas of KS. Nearly every single rural county in the western 1/3 of the state has declined by over 10% in population since the year 2000.
Here is the clickable KS map that displays the evidence.
Kansas QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau

[denverian]

I wonder what will eventually happen to these counties? You'd think the land would continue to be farmed, so a certain number of people would remain out there.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by denverian

I wonder what will eventually happen to these counties? You'd think the land would continue to be farmed, so a certain number of people would remain out there.

That is already happening for the most part. The consolidation of farms and ranches has been so complete that you only have a fewer big players now in some of the frontier counties that are more agriculturally dependent. Also, the out-migration of younger residents takes away future potential capital and growth potential. The people generally vote with their feet, and that is the result.

[southernnaturelover]

Some of it is probably people not having as many kids. The majority of the houses for sale in my area belong to elderly people who either passed away or went into a nursing home. When you have a large elderly population and a younger generation who only have one or two kids (or none) you can expect a population decline.

[jayell79]

That and the fact that the state is broke and there are little to no jobs. We are moving out of a small town to Lincoln NE.

[GraniteStater]

I think it is mainly the result of middle age people and families that are leaving the rural areas. The younger College graduates tend to move to more urban locales where the job market is more diverse. These are the individuals that very rarely return to small towns. I have talked to a number of people about this issue. It really impacts the entire rural Great Plains region for the most part.

[southernnaturelover]

I'm sure they'll be replaced by illegals.

[talbet]

all the illegals are going back to mexico they have a better economy.

[GraniteStater]

I read an article a short time ago saying that only a few states actually have budget surpluses right now with North Dakota being one of them. I hear that Kansas has had a fairly rough economic patch along with not getting income tax refunds back. I think we are all going to have to be more fiscally conservative overall. I don't think it is a particularly fair that CA gets a huge cut of the stimulus when their spending programs in the prior few years were out of control.

[Chris19]

Originally Posted by southernnaturelover

Some of it is probably people not having as many kids. The majority of the houses for sale in my area belong to elderly people who either passed away or went into a nursing home. When you have a large elderly population and a younger generation who only have one or two kids (or none) you can expect a population decline.

I agree with that statement. In some towns up in South Dakota that have been declining, some of the older houses are bought up by hunters and are lived in a few weeks of the years during the fall during pheasant and deer seasons. The town where my great-grandparents lived in (in the northern part of South Dakota) has at least 60-70% of its population that is over 65 years old and is 900 people now as opposed to it being 1500-1600 people back in the 1970s.

The schools and counties will have to consolidate to be more cost-effective for the taxpayers and also due to the simple fact that there are fewer and fewer taxpayers to sustain the entities and fewer kids to attend the schools. I am sure that Western Kansas's rural exodus problems are similar to what is experienced in a number of smaller communities in South Dakota outside of the Rapid City/Black Hills and Sioux Falls/I-29 corridors.