Well, in population anyway. Last week the Census Bureau released its 2020 population figures for each state.
“The South region of the United States led the nation in population growth with an increase of 10.2% from 2010,” explained the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. But, Mississippi (joined by West Virginia and Illinois) headed the other way.
The state’s population loss wasn’t terrible, just over 6,000 from 2010. However, the Journal editorial pointed out, “when you look at the rest of the country, it reveals an alarming reality.”
“The closest comparison to Mississippi – from population, demographic and economic standpoints – would be Arkansas. It saw a population increase of 3.3%, surpassing Mississippi’s population for the first time in more than 100 years.”
You see, population losers tend to have significant underlying problems – poverty, underperforming schools, few good jobs, declining quality of life, and so on. Population winners, on the other hand, tend to have good things happening. As Jack Schultz noted in his best seller Boomtown USA, population growth is one the best indicators of an area's prosperity.
Schultz’s proposition was validated by a study conducted by the bipartisan Economic Innovation Group (EIG). The study found population increased in better off counties while it declined in worse off counties. “In the years following the recession, top-tier places have thrived, seeing meteoric growth in jobs, businesses, and population. Meanwhile, the number of people living in America’s most distressed zip codes is shrinking as the nature of distress becomes more rural.”
Interestingly, population was a consequence, not a measure in the study. Criteria used were: 1) adult population with no high school diploma; 2) housing vacancies; 3) labor force participation; 4) poverty; 5) county income levels; 6) number of jobs; and 7) number of businesses, all with challenges in Mississippi.
For years we have seen population decline in our poorest counties. But in 2018, Census Bureau data showed 63 of our 82 counties to be population losers. (Note: 67 of our counties are rated rural by USDA.)
Shrinking rural counties comprise just one of our population issues. Another is brain drain, particularly among our brightest young people. Data shows them leaving Mississippi for better opportunities in other states.
The Equality of Opportunity Project, part of a Harvard University program, looked at the likelihood of 26-year-olds achieving upward income mobility on a county by county basis. The project researchers found little hope and low probability for young people raised in low-income counties to earn more as adults than the average annual income for the bottom quartile of earners nationally. Every year spent in such counties decreased their opportunities for success.
No wonder so many leave. And, as a result, county educational attainment numbers fall. The EIG study found that “educational attainment has emerged as the sharpest fault-line separating thriving communities from struggling ones. Urban areas are ascendant, rural areas are in flux, and suburbs retain their outsized claim on the map of U.S. prosperity.”
For Mississippi to rise, addressing rural issues and brain drain should be at the top of the state’s priority list.
“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” – Galatians 6:2.
Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.
20 comments:
I don’t want to live in a state ruled by bigoted religious zealots. That will not change in my lifetime. So there is no point in staying when I complete my education.
Republicans have run the state for the last 10 years. Why haven’t their polices worked?
Young people move from rural to urban areas for economic opportunity and the social environment. Mississippi presents very few places that qualify for that kind of movement. Jackson the largest urban area in particular does not qualify. Other Southern states have urban areas that seem to be moving forward especially in terms of the leadership. Mississippi with Jackson at the forefront is just the opposite and getting worse.
The way republicans are dominating the state elections looks like we must be losing libs. As they say "every cloud has a silver lining".
One-party misrule tends to be self-perpetuating, regardless of which side is in power.
Poorly run blue cities drive out producers, leaving a poorer, more blue electorate. Poorly run red states drive out smart people, leaving a redder, less educated electorate.
When Tate, et al fight stupid cultural battles, don’t think they do it out of naïveté. They want your college educated, politically-on-the-fence or liberal kids to leave so they need only pander to bitter racist dead-enders.
12:08, you mean like they have in Jackson and most of Dist 2 voting area.
Now on if KF doesn't get cold feet.
I was told tort reform would lead to a boom in business and population for our state. It’s almost like it only benefitted wealthy corporations and insurance companies at the expense of the middle class
It's good to come here, to the comment section, to read all the intelligent ideas of the readers to solve this problem. What's that you say, no solutions have been offered? Sadly that is true. The comments thus far seemed to enjoy this dilemma. What a sad existence some must have. Chief among those people is the writer of this column. Ole Bill never misses an opportunity to bad mouth the state. Bill often injures his finger pointing out problems, but seldom has any answers.
5:02, you're right on point. Sadly, we missed the opportunities for dramatic changes when we had DC clout all the way back to Stennis and Eastland. Today, we're down to the star-studded cast of Bennie and the Lightweights. How much further will Mississippi's economic plane fly? All the way to the scene of the crash.
5:02 Solutions? It will take an act of God. Some kind of a catastrophe that makes other more prosperous places start from scratch. Even then, Mississippi will need smart, progressive leadership to take advantage of the opportunities. For most, but not all of Mississippi, that's not possible.
5:02 & 5:56, why should everyone laugh at you two.....its progressive voters like you that caused the problem, you and your heroes like the Kennedys, LBJ, HHH. People knew what was going to happen when the Demoncrats started buying votes with all their vote buying programs.
You went after the paid voters and threw the voices of the working people who paid taxes that supported this city and made it grow out the door. I find it very funny how you're bemoaning the status of the city people like you created. Yes it is funny to look at Jackson's self created problems and think that after awhile you would have stopped shooting yourself in the foot because it hurt.
There is no fixing the problems in Jackson because there is no moral fiber left there. Go back to your mayor talking about Jackson becoming the bold new city and how he wants a chocolate city. Well guess what, y'all have it all and you can't control it. Like thousand of others, I saw what was happening, so I quit the JPD and took my family and left for better future. The only thing that brought us back was a few remaining family members and no tax on my two retirements. Jackson is only 20 or so miles away, but it might as well be on dark side of the moon as far as going there.
So just sit there on your runaway train and maybe Antar will let you toot the horn as it runs off the tracks......
6:45, apparently you forgot to take your medications.
7:33 what's the matter snowflake, the truth hurts your little progressive ears.
If you're too dumb to pull your head out of the sand and actually look at your surroundings, then you need to be placed on some type of meds. How long did you wait on water to come back on?
Why did you refuse to accept that you live in a failed, dying city , but continue to worship the murderers of what was once a viable functional city? Maybe one day you'll receive a blow to the head and when you come to, you'll look to the surrounding communities and say why do those people have nice roads, excellent schools, thriving economic development, nice safe clean neighborhoods and little crime.
Oh wait, those people don't vote blue, so they can have nice things!
Nahhhh, I doubt you'll have an epiphany, but you can get taller rubber boots as the sewer rises and the rest of the country laughs at you. Then you can pouch out those lips and claim its all racist.
population loss can be expected when your only growth industry is government.
MS isn't losing population solely from Jackson's issues. All are partly responsible, and all will suffer. Eventually, even the bow of the Titanic went under the waves.
MS really only has itself to blame for the current population loss. This state has been a welfare state for an eternity. We cannot continue going down this same road of creating for the select few while giving the middle finger to the rest of the state. The college graduates in my family are leaving the state because the grass is overall greener in other states. I am encouraging them to leave.
There is some guy who occasionally spouts off something about 200 families run this state. I am starting to believe that more and more each passing year I live here.
The cancel-culture radar is up and working today.
About those families 1:45PM; the state's highways are very telling of the fact that a few people run the state. Just look at the new highway 45s. From Shannon to Macon the new highways roll across open farmland except for Columbus and West Point where the two roads remain on city streets. How much sooner would Highway 78 have been completed if only one highway 45 had been built midway between the two that were built. 60 years ago when Mississippi automobile tags were made in Columbus the man who made then was said to own the politicians in north Mississippi and it seems his family still does.
We need to look at a breakdown of the census figures and see which counties and cities are growing and which are imploding. Then we can plan accordingly. There's no one-size-fits-all plan.
Mississippi Bus Stations: Selling tickets to Chicago since 1954.
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