Maine Population Shifts (Portland, Bangor, Millinocket: houses, employment, school)

[OutdoorLover]

I came across this article with a nice "heat map" of population changes from 2010-2016. Some towns don't have data, and there is variation, but there's a general trend of southern and coastal Maine gaining population and northern/western Maine losing population. The map is actually interactive if you go to the website.




See more here:
Bangor’s shrinking population reflects a northern Maine trend | Widgets and Digits

[maineguy8888]

Many towns in central, western, eastern and northern Maine have lost a quarter of their population over the last 100 years.

Some (such as Millinocket, Cutler, Sebec, Monson, Bingham, and New Portland) have lost around half of their population.

Van Buren, Danforth, Starks, Weld, Calais and Lubec have all lost around two-thirds of their population.

And Eastport has lost over three-quarters of its population.

These are unfortunate realities of life in Maine.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by maineguy8888

Many towns in central, western, eastern and northern Maine have lost a quarter of their population over the last 100 years.

Some (such as Millinocket, Cutler, Sebec, Monson, Bingham, and New Portland) have lost around half of their population.

Van Buren, Danforth, Starks, Weld, Calais and Lubec have all lost around two-thirds of their population.

And Eastport has lost over three-quarters of its population.

These are unfortunate realities of life in Maine.

Some of that sounds pretty rough indeed. What do you think are the primary drivers for these areas that are really losing people? Are there any overarching causes, or is each town's story unique?

[woxyroxme]

Originally Posted by maineguy8888

And Eastport has lost over three-quarters of its population.

When I was growing up Eastport had around 2000 people living there, probably around 1200 by now. There are a lot of houses that have been sitting empty for years that I can remember having people living in them.

[maineguy8888]

Originally Posted by woxyroxme

When I was growing up Eastport had around 2000 people living there, probably around 1200 by now. There are a lot of houses that have been sitting empty for years that I can remember having people living in them.

At its peak, Eastport had well over 5,000 people. I wonder what has happened with all of those houses that people lived in??

[maineguy8888]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

Some of that sounds pretty rough indeed. What do you think are the primary drivers for these areas that are really losing people? Are there any overarching causes, or is each town's story unique?

There are too many of these towns, all over much of Maine, for it not to be connected.

I think that there has been an absolute rush for people to congregate in larger cities over the last 75 years. That has meant huge population losses for many places.

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

Some of that sounds pretty rough indeed. What do you think are the primary drivers for these areas that are really losing people? Are there any overarching causes, or is each town's story unique?

lots of old mills towns textiles/shoes/paper mills

along the coast they had canneries years ago and much more fishing/harvesting related business..


I think a few major factors are ….. many high school kids ...for decades in rural towns "just want to get out" from moving away to college going to fla. just a change of scenery - families are having less kids.....

the forest industry has much fewer jobs


the southern part of the state in particular Portland...….high school kids going to college do focus on this area. from all over the state... my son went to une (university of new England) and one of the campus's was in Portland ...so he lived for 6 yrs around Portland...and he got a job in southern maine - hospital because of job opportunity (pharmacist)

many older people are moving back or many have a summer home in maine…..

for a long time maine wasn't very business friendly...….not welcoming new businesses to maine….the environmental mouthpieces always had the media as sympathizers....

[kettlepot]

All primary industries, farming, mining, fishing, logging, have become much more labor efficient in the past 100+ years. The labor isn't needed, so the laborers and their families have gone elsewhere.

Some of the value of these efficiencies have gone to the remaining employed labor, and some is returned to the investors who financed the machinery which made these efficiencies possible. The investors, or the managers of the investment money live in cities, as a generalization.

Cities offer greater and more varied employment opportunities. Some cities thrive, some muddle through, and others themselves fail like the remote villages common to Maine.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

There is a song called The Last Cowboy Song. It begins with, This is the last cowboy song; the end of a hundred year walk." Maine is the same way. Our traditions are dying as our elders pass on. There was a very good article in the Bangor Daily about fishing remote trout ponds. You hike in there. Few people do that any more. The article is about Wiggy Robinson's son, one of the few of us still fishing remote ponds. Wiggy was a legendary guide. He died about a decade ago. Maine has lost over 600 mom and pop general stores and gas stations. Angus made a rule against steel tanks. Mom & pop could not afford the double wall fiberglass tanks with electronic vapor monitoring for $125,000.

[OpinionExperience]

Originally Posted by mainebrokerman

lots of old mills towns textiles/shoes/paper mills

along the coast they had canneries years ago and much more fishing/harvesting related business..


I think a few major factors are ….. many high school kids ...for decades in rural towns "just want to get out" from moving away to college going to fla. just a change of scenery - families are having less kids.....

the forest industry has much fewer jobs


the southern part of the state in particular Portland...….high school kids going to college do focus on this area. from all over the state... my son went to une (university of new England) and one of the campus's was in Portland ...so he lived for 6 yrs around Portland...and he got a job in southern maine - hospital because of job opportunity (pharmacist)

many older people are moving back or many have a summer home in maine…..

for a long time maine wasn't very business friendly...….not welcoming new businesses to maine….the environmental mouthpieces always had the media as sympathizers....

You nailed it.

Every where across this country people are going through the same thing, looking to get out of their bubble to something new. Maine is one of those destinations, yet there is a vocal disdain for "people from away". Now you are getting refugees, since you chased everyone who wanted to be in Maine for it's culture away.