NW Kansas Population Numbers are out! (Norton, Logan: employment, schools, agricultural)

[GraniteStater]

Population of NW Kansas Counties
The consolidation of counties has to happen soon! This is an agricultural region and some of the counties have had declining populations for over 100 years. It makes more sense to consolidate some of these counties into a much larger county where new businesses, schools, and other functions could operate much more efficiently. It makes no sense to continue to have a county seat in every single county anymore. Develop a new regional center city in the middle of these 12 counties and consolidate them into one large county. In this way, the 12 counties could consolidate their businesses, schools, and local government in order to operate much more efficiently and keep the region more stable in the future.

Cheyenne County
2000- 3,165
2006- 2,911
Population Decline 2000-2006 = -8.0%

Rawlins County
2000- 2,966
2006- 2,643
Population Decline 2000-2006 = -10.9%

Sherman County
2000- 6,760
2006- 5,981
Population Decline 2000-2006 = -11.5%

Thomas County
2000- 8,180
2006- 7,468
Population Decline 2000-2006 = -8.7%

Decatur County
2000- 3,472
2006- 3,120
Population Decline 2000-2006 = -10.1%

Sheridan County
2000- 2,813
2006- 2,600
Population Decline 2000-2006 = -7.6%

Norton County
2000- 5,953
2006- 5,584
Population Decline 2000-2006 = -6.2%

Graham County
2000- 2,946
2006- 2,677
Population Decline 2000-2006 = -9.1%

Wallace County
2000- 1,749
2006- 1,557
Population Decline 2000-2006 = -11.0%

Logan County
2000- 3,046
2006- 2,675
Population Decline 2000-2006 = -12.2%

Gove County
2000- 3,068
2006- 2,721
Population Decline 2000-2006 = -11.3%

Trego County
2000- 3,319
2006- 2,993
Population Decline 2000-2006 = -9.8%

Total Population in NW Kansas Counties in 2000 = 47,437
Total Population in NW Kansas Counties in 2006 = 42,930
Total Area = 11,725 square miles
Population Density persons per square mile (average for 12 counties) = 4.0 and falling
No Counties are included in the metropolitan or micropolitan designation
Climate = Dry, Semiarid, 10-15 inches of precipitation per year
Current economic activities= Farming, Ranching, Oil, Gas, Retail Trade, Manufacturing.

[GraniteStater]

NW Kansas should consolidate and form one large county that covers thousands of square miles similar to Cherry County Nebraska. Almost all of the counties in NW Kansas fall into the frontier status, meaning that their are fewer than 6 people per square mile. However, I do not see things improving much in the area in the future because many of the counties keep losing jobs and younger residents to urban areas. Also, many of the towns on I-70 are only seen as "truck stop towns" which really does not give the region a big boost.

[justme8]

Ok...but the area you are talking about covers a lot of ground. How would it be more efficient to have one county seat in this large area. It's hard enough to get the county to do things now...what would it be like if the county included all these areas??

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by justme8

Ok...but the area you are talking about covers a lot of ground. How would it be more efficient to have one county seat in this large area. It's hard enough to get the county to do things now...what would it be like if the county included all these areas??

Well, how about a cluster of four counties consolidating into one larger county? That way, the biggest town in the four county radius would be able to pull in all the resources of the surrounding towns and counties. If you do a comparisson between the county sizes of Nebraska counties compared with Kansas counties you will find that Nebraska counties are much larger. The counties in NW Kansas are located at the same longitude line, which means that the annual precipitation values are fairly similar. Another thing that is critical for the area would be some economic development considering many counties have lost non-farm employment over the past several years. The only type of economic development in western Kansas that would not be acceptable to many people would be coal power plants. Other ideas would be an expansion of wind energy in rural counties that benefits landowners as well.