It’s not sad to me. All the new innovation and liveliness of new and upcoming American cities is exciting. Our cities are the backbone of our economy. 🤷♂️
@Retro SEGA and More not with the younger generations I don’t think that will happen. Most younger people want to live in cities. There is a huge demand for walkable community oriented cities amongst the younger generations right now. I think they choose the exciting life over the simpler. Just a trend I noticed tho 🤷♂️
@Retro SEGA and More I can see that happening on a small scale with city's that have problems surrounded by desirable rual areas, but many cities have been drastically improving themselves, while many rual areas just don't have much to offer regarding income, convenience, service's, and lifestyle. Its not just young people. Many older people are moving into cities as well for the convenience, and medical safety of living close to a hospital. Also, the work from home thing only affects a small portion of the workforce. Most people either work in the service industry, or trades, where working from home is not an option. You are right that some people will use the pandemic as an opportunity to get out of crappy cities, but the urban growth will always overshadow urban flight, unless there is a massive increase in "desirable" rual employment opportunities.
I fear working from home is gonna be the new frontier for corporate outsourcing. If you are only a zoom screen away, why couldn’t they just replace you with an educated worker from overseas for cheaper?
You don't realize how true that is. That's why occupational monoculture is SO dangerous. All the "jobs" in tech while high paying for now are eventually going to be outsourced and devastate the cities built and being built around them (Atlanta, San Francisco, The Bay Area, ect) are going to suffer the worst. It will be similar to what happened to Detroit and the "Rust Belt" after the automotive industry was outsourced.
Corporate greed has always been the poison of the American economy/dream. If they can outsource your job to save a couple bucks, they will. The bigger threat to your corporate job will come from software rather than people in foreign countries though. If your not the man in the corner office, then you are a tool, and you will collect dust if the man can find a more effective tool.
@@kazeryu17 Sorta. Software no matter how advance will still need some sort of human intervention to fully function properly. That being said the human they will pick work for a fraction of what they are worth and even more so in another heavily unregulated non American country.
The south Texas coastal counties that are declining are the “Wild Horse Desert”, mostly because of a geological feature called the south Texas sand sheet. It’s a massive area of almost nothing but very deep wind blown sand, hardly any surface water besides salty lakes. It’s a vast unpopulated, almost undevelopable area between Corpus and the Valley. Also the location of the King Ranch.
I live in Houston and used to drive to the valley to visit my brother and made the mistake of not fueling up before I got to this stretch. I think I went like 20 miles past E before luckily finding gas lol.
I wonder how SpaceX's placement of their Starship development facility will effect that region. Their development/launch site is located in Cameron County. Right now they have a big RV park and they make workers from LA take trips to the South Texas site. However, I could see them wanting permanent engineers in the region. This might prompt the region to become another "Space Coast" like Cape Canaveral in Florida. An industrial monoculture based solely around aerospace and tourism. Also interesting is the fact that Elon Musk recently publicized his intention to acquire the area surrounding his launch site and incorporate it into a new city.
@@Astromatter It appears that a vast, unworkable desert is going to get some investment. Anyone who wants to invest in Corpus Christi might want to consider how to make money from nearby engineers. Meanwhile, potential homes go unfixed in Michigan, a state which won't invest in itself nor allow new business to come in.
It's really fascinating to see how high prices are having material effects in places like LA, the bay area, and Honolulu. Very weird to see that Philly is growing but Silicon Valley is shrinking. Completely goes against the conventional wisdom of the past 50 years. Also unrelated, but this channel is quickly becoming one of my favorites.
Biggest thing about philly is that it’s a relatively low cost city for how big it is. But it’s definitely a cool city too. It has a hipster, grungy vibe to it with some bouje areas too. Lot of job growth, history and culture. Many of the old buildings are being preserved, and new apartments are being built in former “sketchy” and run down areas. Check out philly sometime !
@@Dalt21 yeah I love Philly a lot. I’m going to school here and it’s a really awesome and exciting place to be, and in my experience, it’s really the only other city in the country that captures what NYC has, although Chicago also has an equally cool feel to it.
@@eggiegonzalez4290 Between census years, though, the Census Bureau still makes population estimates to the county level every year. Next ones are gonna be released in December this year for the state level, then in March next year we'll have new county level estimates.
I learned a lot about our country on a cross country bicycle ride. A woman in Kansas and I were talking about the shrinking small towns. She said, "When they close the school, that's it for the town." Lots of people have the fantasy of moving back to their roots or taking advantage of working from home in the country, but the reality is something different.
from kansas. First its the infrastructure to go, then the businesses because of the infrastructure, then the hospitals, then the schools. That's the end right there. It's sad and could be fixed through government budget changes. People in power care about rural people when the vote. After election day, we don't cross their minds once.
@Monke I agree because I also live in Florida & my dad is from NY. I was also born here which is rare. Only 35.9% (as of 2018) were actually born here. The NYC metro area along with New England have been steadily coming here for 80 years (since WWII) & it’s only getting more noticeable & way higher these past 20 years. It’d probably be even higher if it included foreign-born people who immigrated to the NYC area first, then came down here.
Pittsburgh and western PA have a very high elderly population. The city of Pittsburgh itself rebounded well, but a lot of the old steel towns in surrounding counties didn’t benefit as much from the rebound of Pittsburgh. The surrounding counties have a lot of older towns. Butler county is seeing a lot of increase because people around pittsburgh are moving there for newer homes and better school districts, Butler county was mainly farmland 20 years ago but new development really is saturated there.
The growth in Butler County is mainly in southern Butler County (Cranberry, Seven Fields, Adams Twp., and up to Zelienople or Evans City). Otherwise, it's a lot like the other counties surrounding Allegheny. For Allegheny and the others, despite population decline, I think a lot are seeing lower decline than in previous decades. Basically, it's finally starting to level off. The demographics certainly don't help in making any kind of a rebound.
That makes the beaches inaccessible. So no one goes there. It would be a good sight for a resorts as Padre Island is a barrier island that protects the inner coast from storm surge, and most of the island is a wildlife preserve.
@@nothat0therguy992 i’m probably not qualified to say this (live in illinois but only been to champaign once) but The one time i went to champaign (to see university of illinois) it seemed very nice! Not too big, not too small, and it had a nice feel to it. I would say it’s one of the nicer areas
@@shane9245 If it's growing it might like the Illinois city, I know most Midwest states have a booming metro area. Like for instance Michigan's is Grand Rapids and Ohio's is Columbus, but I've never been certain what was Illinois boom metro
Champaign is as close as it gets to a boom area in Illinois. New highrises and construction all year. Most people here really enjoy how it is 'Just the right size' but it is a bit boring being in the middle of Illinois. However, Chicago is still building and developing a lot, just the growth rate is very minimal.
@@nothat0therguy992 very much a university town because University of Illinois is enormous, but it seems like a nice enough place regardless. The university leads to good job opportunities, surprisingly diverse with lots of food options, and the university has the best COVID testing program in the country that they've extended to locals too, which has significantly reduced cases and deaths compared to many surrounding areas.
Good video, man! It's simple, like a lecture, but I like it. Only remark: It's hard to take an American seriously when he claims that there's no space left.
He doesn't mean that there's physically no space between there. He just means that the built up area of the two metro areas has merged, so there's no spare areas of countryside between them. It's all just a contiguous area of suburbs
When we say that, it's mostly when the suburbs of a citi are so far out that either a new economic center needs to be built up to maintain growth or housing prices skyrockets
I lived in Northwest Illinois for 23 years, just about everyone I went to school with, friends, and family have left the state. The state is literally crumbling. Left for Northwest LP Michigan and love it. Never looking back. Great video.
@@sm3675 I lived just north of Sterling in Freeport, IL. Seemed to be one of the better towns in the area when I left, they have good factory jobs as well and safe. Just not for me, pretty boring area.
Glad to have you in Michigan. As far as Illinois dying it truly is sad all around. Living in west Michigan myself I've been to Chicago my fair share of times and is one of my favorite places in the country, and my recent drive to Texas (which took us through most of Illinois) blew my mind on how empty it was outside of Chicago and was sad to see. Also hurts to see such a beautiful city like Chicago continuing to fall. Has one of the best skylines in the world but for how much longer.
Holy cow your sub count! I haven't checked it in a few months but yeah, back when I subbed you had just a few thousand subscribers. Congratulations Kyle!
I really appreciate you telling us where you got the information. So may other sites just spew out information and you have no idea if they just made everything up or if they really got it from a reputable source. Another reason I enjoy your site so much.
Really enjoyed this video Kyle. Would love a whole in depth series , taking 1 state or region and really digging into the census data! Keep up the good work
Man this was just an intriguing video, it's nice to see population trends all over the country. I've been debating where I'm going to live. Love this channel.
Idaho native here. It's definitely a seller's market--I just talked to a realtor who said that home inventory across the state is the lowest it's ever been. Housing prices up 100-300% over the last 5 years depending on what area of the state you are in. He said that he listed a house for $350k the other day that had 18 offers in the first 24 hours. 17 from Californians and one from a native. He told the native he would have to offer $80K over asking price if he wanted the home. Impossible to do when he is earning Idaho wage against the remote-working Californians making their comparatively massive wages (sidenote about how a federally-mandated minimum wage doesn't really make sense when you consider the vast economic differences between different areas, but we don't need to get into that here). Just nuts. As one who will be opening a dentist office in the next few years I don't mind it, as long as I can still escape to my mountains and trails, which hopefully will take a long time for some of the non-natives to catch on to--some of the more hidden ones. I don't think growth is necessarily a bad thing--infrastructure is nice and beautiful and nothing is dilapidated out here in most of the cities of the west. People care about things and want them to be and look nice. There's plenty of jobs and resources for everyone. I like to ascribe to an abundance mentality instead of scarcity. But I am definitely sad to see lots of rural areas going (and to see so many California license plates with crazy people who drive like maniacs and are conservative by LA county standards but still liberal by intermountain west standards, and who move here seeking conservatism but still want to change things more liberally than the usual around here). Anyway, I think it's good. Just gotta find ways to appreciate it and to make friends with neighbors instead of being angry or upset about it like so many are. I'm from the Idaho Falls area of Southeast Idaho and it seems to me that for about every 8 Californians that move here, only 2-3 stay after one winter. They aren't so fond of snow on the ground from late September to sometimes early June, as well as consistent -30F temperatures in January and February. Most end up moving on to Boise or Coeur D'alene where the weather is much more mild. Great vid Kyle. Keep them coming!
I guess I'm going against the grain Kyle theorized in the video, but I live in Raleigh, NC, working remotely, and frankly I'm tired of the city, and especially NC's covid response, so I'm looking to move somewhere where I have a bit more independence. Idaho Falls is actually at the top of my list, I'm visiting in May to check it out. How do you like living there? Do you have any recommendations for places/restaurants/etc. I should see for the 4 days I'm there to get a good feel for the town?
@@0bennett0 Idaho Falls is awesome, though I'm not sure how much someone would enjoy it after moving from a big city. And I'm not saying that to discourage you from moving there, just passing it along as someone who has lived in both small and big cities. You won't find nightlife--in fact, most streets are pretty empty after 9pm (which I, for one, think is awesome). That said, some great places to see are the parks downtown around the river and the waterfalls, the museum of Idaho, the greenbelt, frisbee golf parks out in Ammon, and you might as well take a drive out to Swan Valley so you can see the potato, wheat, barley, and hops fields. Craters of the Moon National Monument isn't too far out into the desert and of course Yellowstone and Grand Teton NP aren't too far either. As far as restaurants go, Smitty's pancake and steak house is a local favorite. The Snakebite downtown is great, and the Chick Fil A is the only one between Idaho Falls and Centerville, UT (a suburb of Salt Lake City, about three hours away) so that's a huge hit. There's tons of gun ranges out west of town. To be honest, if you are looking for a lot to do or see that doesn't involve the outdoors, Idaho Falls doesn't have a lot. We do things outside with our awesome neighbors and the down-to-earth people and that's what makes it great. It's a small town community with a great economy that is built on and for strong families. It is generally much more white collar than the surrounding Idaho towns (Blackfoot, Pocatello, Rigby, etc are each much more blue collar, but I also think that's awesome). Best of luck!
@@tymarls Thanks very much for your recommendations! I will definitely check some of those spots out while I'm there. That sort of lifestyle sounds up my alley overall, and I will also admit that having a Chick-fil-a is a requirement for my place of residence, haha. Who knows, maybe I'll be getting my teeth cleaned at your dentist office in a few years? Thanks again, and best of luck to you, too.
It is really funny how so many border states talk about California. I'm clueless and do not have input. But interesting for sure. Oh, all I know is when San Francisco and more areas wanted to annex from the US after Trump was elected. Then and later on I have read that California alone would be the 6th wealthiest nation? So we might ought to keep them!!
Fort Wayne is actually pretty nice. The city is seeing a steady stream of investment and has improved its downtown area. The surrounding area is somewhat like western Michigan where it’s fairly rural but has maintained a decent manufacturing base
Glad to see Wisconsin is going a bit against the trend of rural counties losing population, however I’m sad to see my home Milwaukee County losing population, however I think that will change in the coming years
The population is honestly almost exactly the same as it was in 2010 depending on the year it has slightly grown or shrunk. The reason for this is the city of Milwaukee is building thousands of apartment units (I’m not exaggerating) a year in downtown and near neighborhoods but the inner city is being abandoned at the same time. It’s kind of interesting.
What may help WI is there are attractions or worthwhile city visits all along I90/94: LaCrosse has the Mississippi, Dells has waterparks, Madison has an abundance of things, then you get to Milwaukee. Not along I90 there are plenty of worthy stops too: Green Bay for a game, Kohler for golf, Door County for nature. Just a great state even if the Northern part isn’t as populated.
Yeah right now the area between Milwaukee and Madison is facing a huge demand for housing as the majority of this area is suburban sprawl many are moving here houses are selling on average of less then 5 days it’s pretty nuts right now not to mention almost every farm plot is being turned into new developments with well over 60% of the homes here being built over the past 30 years
Glad to see my home state doing pretty well. I'm in Philadelphia and definitely not surprised to see the whole metro area is growing, but as someone who REALLY enjoys going out deeper into this half of the state for the amazing parks and lovely small cities, I'm really happy to see the region growing across the board. I think PA is doing a very good job with revitalizing its small cities. Easton, Bethlehem, Lancaster, York, and a few other towns like Jim Thorpe are nestled at the footsteps of amazing landscape and they're all repurposing the steel and coal infrastructure into cool spaces and maintaining very good universities (Lehigh, Lafayette, Millersville, York) and have great dining. And they're affordable. I'm sure the growth of the natural gas industry in the state helps too, but honestly I'm not sure which part of the state exports most of that. But it's a great area of the country and the property is still cheap up in the mountainous regions. Obviously some of those small Pocono towns have their issues, but as far as nice weekend getaways and beautiful landscapes go, it's so awesome.
I agree, Philly has been on the up recently and it’s great to see. I think our location right in the middle of the NE Megalopolis and access to great cities such as NYC and DC, the Pocono Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean.. I can get to ocean city NJ in an hour from center city without traffic :). Winters have been mild and no snow recently is a plus, although the summers are longer now and overtaking fall which is my favorite season.
The honest truth, as quiet as it's kept, is that Chicago is growing again. Recently talked to Real Estate agents I personally know in the area, they say alot of people from all over the US are moving in in large numbers. Majority of migrants are from NYC and LA areas. I guess everyone in America's 3 mega cities shuffle quite a bit.
Chicago has lots of problems but also a lot of potential. It’s pretty affordable for a city of its size and with its world class institutions. They really need an outer loop on their el train to make it easier to go across town without having to go downtown. Directly link regional centers and desaturate the core of the system.
I lived in Lake County, Indiana for a long time and some of my relatives live there. It’s pretty depressing, there isn’t that much to do, but some of the towns are growing while some of the larger ones like Hammond and Gary are shrinking in population
my grandma lives there (lake station) and they are building homes in the southern part of the county. All the Chicago people are moving there that’s probably the reason why Lake county isn’t losing population as much.
One thing that I noticed from the map and you failed to mention is the influence of public land on population specifically decline. Most of Vermont is National Forest. Huge portions of New Mexico are federal or Indian Land. Huge Parts of Alaska are federal land. Even huge portions of Upstate New York are federal and state land that have high restrictions on development.
The place where your logic falls apart is that those vast areas don’t need that vast land to be developed for population to grow. There’s towns there, they are losing people. People are leaving. It’s not that the vast forest isn’t getting developed. It’s that people are leaving.
@@steviesevieria1868 where your logic falls apart is in the jobs department. People move where the work is and if employers can't develop the land people will move where the employers can develop the land.
@@Scott-by9ks especially not necessary to “develop” national parks and national forests etc. ...for jobs ...that’s ridiculous, just destruction for the sake of destruction, Trump style.
@@steviesevieria1868 that was not what I was suggesting. My point was that people move where the jobs are. I don't see people leaving rural areas as a problem. People move for better opportunities or a cheaper cost of living. This is a good thing in my opinion.
Same, I’m from Columbus, OH and a lot of people here come from depopulated rural areas, I think that the only way to fix the depopulation is to revitalize the rural areas and bring new jobs to the areas severely hurt by jobs going to Mexico or China
We need to make America more friendly to small business and farms. Large all consuming industries just sell us the product, outsource the work to third countries, without any of us benefiting financially. It would be so cool if having and running a small piece of land could be seen as a good way to live again, because most people don't even want office jobs or a 9-5 but just want peace of mind and a sense of fulfillment and place of being. City life is fine, totally acceptable, but it shouldn't be the ONLY way to make a living while small towns continue to die.
I'd hope that as internet speeds get faster and more people work from home that maybe rural areas can get some decent paying jobs that will keep people from moving, but who knows.
I am from Greenville, SC and it’s been fascinating to watch the city transform since the 90’s. I also lived for while in Franklin Co. VT, 7 miles from Quebec. Had no idea it was growing. 🤷♂️
Speaking from the perspective of an upstate NYer, I think it’s important to highlight the effect of wealthier people moving out of the cities (at least in this area) out to more rural areas, driving up housing costs. Then the residents aren’t able to afford the same properties they were renting, then generally move to more urban areas because that’s where more housing/social services opportunities are. The trend alone misses that. That aside this is my favorite channel to nerd out on, I love a good map.
@@BillDotree where I am (about 2 hours due north of NYC, not really what many consider truly upstate) I see most people either go to Newburgh or the NYC metro area if in need of housing. Only reason they go to newburgh there because they get a ton of state funding for this kind of thing. But any further upstate, I’d think they’d be more inclined to move to the smaller cities you suggested
Really great video, Kyle. I'd be interested in seeing a map that shows maybe 3-4 tiers of total growth/decline per county- think that would help make more clear which of these green/gray areas are really staying stable vs. which ones are significantly changing.
Texan here. Love your videos, but gotta disagree with what you say at 11:18 about how in 10 years there won't be any space between the major Texas metro areas. Dallas and Houston will never connect. It's over 100 very, very rural miles on I-45 between Corsicana and Huntsville, and even those aren't exactly integral parts of the metro areas. San Antonio to DFW is a little more plausible (it's practically constant between San Antonio & Waco now), but Waco to Alvarado or Waxahachie is still quite rural and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Hill County (Hillsboro, where I-35E & W split) is actually the only county on I-35 between south of San Antonio and the Red River that is NOT part of any Metropolitan or Micropolitan Statistical Area.
As someone who just left Humboldt county CA, it's so economically depressed that even the relative affordability of housing compared to the rest of CA is still too much.
"I'm not sure what's driving the growth in northeastern South Dakota" lol your channel is great man you know so much about geography, keep it up! Almost nobody knows as much about county-level growth than you probably
As a young professional from Ohio, I often ponder if it would be more advantageous for me to go to the areas gaining or losing population. I worked in Cincinnati until last April, and I have a new job lined up that will be initially remote, but will eventually send me to Buffalo (where population is declining). And if the permanence of remote work continues to expand, should I try and find fully remote work in order to settle down exactly where I want to be, maybe somewhere cheap and/or out of the way? It feels like the pandemic has opened the floodgates for some significant changes regarding movement of people.
Neat video. I lived in Pittsburgh for 6 years, moved away in 2017. The city has been on an upward trend for years, with growth in medical, banking, and high tech industries. Tons of young people moving there (I was one of them). However, I think the decline in population is probably explainable in terms of some combination of lower birthrates in the northeast, and perhaps also a lingering effect of the loss of manufacturing that started there in the 1970's. Pittsburgh itself is doing great because of the industries I mentioned, and because of its universities, but many of the areas outside the city are pretty economically depressed. Some of the suburbs north of the city are wealthy (Fox Chapel, Sewickley, etc.), but areas to the south (e.g. Homestead, Braddock, McKeesport, etc.) in particular are very poor. Manufacturing jobs disappeared, and unlike in Pittsburgh, nothing took its place.
I lived in El Paso for about 10 years and then took an assignment overseas that ended up being 20 years, met my wife during that time, had 3 children and when I returned my main concern was my children's future. I chose the DFW area because the growth and job opportunities were outstanding and I feel was the best decision I've made. Today, all the kids are grown and all have jobs that allow them to live on their own.
Current resident of Allen County in NE Indiana - the recent regional growth isn't a surprise to those of us locally, as the whole area has banded together in recent years to create some major quality-of-life improvements including several $100m+ economic development initiatives in the main city of Fort Wayne. Construction recently started on a $250m mixed use project in the downtown area. Because the city is doing so well, the entire region is beginning to benefit.
I live in the Triad of NC. There is almost no space between the Triad and the Triangle as you noted. I live in Winston-Salem and you can almost essentially drive on the highway and remain in some city/large town the entire way all the way to Raleigh. There might be a small gap between Greensboro and Burlington but otherwise, it has all pretty much grown together. Soon (10-20 years) there will probably not be much room between the Triad and the Charlotte area either. I love North Carolina and things are certainly changing around here, as of right now it seems for the best!
Along I-40 I would agree. But the most efficient route between Raleigh and Charlotte is via US64 and that's about 100 miles of mostly empty between Apex and Concord.
Super interesting Kyle! Love these trend vids you do, really shows the power of maps to tell a story. The map along with your narration is really neat. Plus love the web page find I’ll be wasting lots of time on it myself
Bowling Green surprisingly is doing quite well in South-Western Kentucky, the largest attraction to the city is the base of WKU. Which is actually an expanding college.
I have an idea for a video. Tourist traps, you seem to be brutally honest with those. As a poor father, it would be great to know what to avoid with what little money for vacationing I have. Keep up the good work brother!
Fantastic survey, I've spotted quite a few of these localised economic hotspots through different data streams so to see you go through each region stage by stage is awesome. The point is, and so many partisans who crow about the decline of NYC etc don't seem to get is that wherever it is in the World, in whatever the era, humans have gravitated towards more work opportunities, every time. People vote with their feet, it's really that simple. New to this channel and have spent much longer reading the comments than I normally do, it's full of smart people having interesting things to say as opposed to so much of the nonsense that infests so many other video comment sections on UA-cam sadly.
Nice video Kyle. I was raised in PA and can identity with your analysis. I grew up in the eastern part on the border with NJ. The eastern part is the happening part, closer to the action in NY and NJ. Many people commute to these places for work. The western and central parts, arguably, are more like the Midwest. I left the state in my late 20's due to lack of opportunities, so I can definitely agree with the trend of heading to larger cities. The rural towns are beautiful and nice places to maybe retire, but not to launch a career.
That Northeast corner of Indiana is the home of massive industrial growth. The unemployment rate is super low and the factories pay really well. Unfortunately, housing is scarce and the industry is heavily dependent on the recreational vehicle (think campers) industry.
@Plus Ultra Gang Seemingly true. The downtown area is growing fast with all these high rises but then it's essentially suburbs directly outside of that
Interestingly a lot of people from Austin are moving to Nashville, especially since a lot of musicians and people in the music industry are being priced out of Austin.
Informative as always, Kyle/GK. A small suggestion/critique: I would like to see data aggregated into 5 categories of lots of growth, moderate growth, more or less no change, moderate decline, steep decline. Or even just three sets of increase, decrease, essentially no change.
Man what a great channel. For major cities, Baltimore City for example is losing and you can see that blip on your map since Baltimore City is reported separately since it is not inside of any county. I suspect that if you look at city specific data, you would start seeing more Baltimore blips pop up, like Detroit and Chicago. Also, instances where the county metro areas are gaining for all the reasons you state, yet the major city inside the metro is losing.
Great video! A little info about eastern N.C. The part that's growing (the Outer Banks) is a barrier island chain with many beach towns (Nags Head, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills). Once you get a few miles from the coast, it's very swampy and as rural as many places out West. There are stretches of road where you don't get to a town for 20-40 miles, and all the towns are tiny.
As a foreigner, it feels despairing that although America's population is still increasing, several parts of the country are declining. This channel is great, keep up the good work.
I can get behind these stats. I just relocated to Cincinnati, OH and it looks like Hamilton county is experiencing its first population growth in decades.
It is and I live here. And I agree, it is one of the most underrated cities. It's a beautiful city with lots of cultural and history not to mention arts, sports, colleges/universities, first rate zoo, Kings Island. Just no beach.
Another reason people are leaving small towns and rural areas is because no one wants to become farmers, miners, or go into other rough simple jobs that used to be a big backbone of the economy. Which is kind of sad because we still need people in those areas.
In PA it’s becoming night and day. In the southeast the population and economy are booming and in the west(minus Pittsburg) and north its declining. A lot of that area is so rural too. It’s creating a huge divide in the population
Thanks for this fascinating look at our population trends. I can surely see a dramatic increase here in the rural foothills of NC over the last 30 years. It would be interesting to see how the influx of foreigners (legal immigrants like me) has affected this map.
I've also heard part of the reason is big commercial pig farms and the smells that come with that. It is a beautiful area (what I've seen of it) but yeah, I can understand not wanting to smell pig waste 24 - 7.
Hurricanes, and the cities just outside of that area have been rapidly growing for a while. Also, with the exception of there beaches(which are nowhere near as popular as myrtle beach, or virginia beach) its economy is mostly agriculture.
Another great vid! Thanks, Geography King! I suspect that the Silicon Valley area may not see growth for a long time - yes, wages are high but real estate (either to buy or rent) is astronomical. And new housing is built on zero-lot line plots with only a patio for a yard. Families do not like living like that since the kids need to run - and if your "yard" is only 25' wide, you really can't do too much running! We moved from San Mateo County to Kailua-Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii in order to live much more cheaply than we could ever do in the Bay Area. Property taxes are very low, as are taxes in general. Yes, we pay a lot more for gas and our electricity costs are among the highest in the nation. But we don't drive all that far (here on the BI, we CAN drive nearly 400 miles but that would be for a vacation, not a commute) and solar panels really reduce electricity costs. If you're retired, living on a tropical island with most of the amenities of the mainland, it's truly a paradise! Plus...we don't have the severity of weather one finds on the mainland nor do we need to put up with the crime most of the major metro areas have. Honolulu County (on the island of Oahu) is declining due to extreme costs of living: rent or purchase prices are way up there and salaries do not afford those costs easily. That explains why Honolulu is losing population to islands like the Big Island. Thanks for your work on your channel. I look forward to your posts just to see what else you publish.
I wonder if these areas like northern california and northeast indiana, which are totally different than the surrounding areas in a way that doesn't make too much sense, are close to the margin of growth/decline. So while they are certainly distinct on the map, their population growth rates may not be terribly different from the surrounding counties of a different color. I can't say for sure because of the binary nature of this data. I would be extremely interested to perform some spatial analysis on county growth data to get a more granular picture of growth rates. I will follow up this comment with my own spatial analysis, including raw growth rates and spatially smoothed growth rates, once I get the chance to! P.S. I am thrilled by your analysis in the video! I'm very impressed at the breadth of knowledge you have about all these different places in America.
King, Northern Indiana is the R.V. capital of America and Ft Wayne is automotive component mfg. Delaware is a tax haven for NE/Mid Atlantic. No sales tax and very low property tax. Retired are flocking to Lewes, Rehoboth building a dream home for 309k with $3000 real estate tax.
Delaware is great. I was lucky enough to get a professional job in New Castle County and my mortgage payment is half of what my rent was when I lived in MA, 3/4th what it was in NJ, and amenities and services here - commuter rail, infrastructure, etc - is comparable. The state is on track to break a million people in a few years and will trade spots with Rhode Island population-wise - a state I used to work in years ago that can't seem to reverse its 100-year downward trend.
Really liked your analysis. Ever thought about doing a map based on property values and poulton and why people are moving around? For example: in the Denver area there is a housing shortage but if you go back 50 years there are two areas northeast and northwest of the city that are unusable because of cold war manufacturing. Perhaps there are more micro effects that are contributing to your thesis. Love the channel.
I was born in 99, and living in DFW that whole time makes it feel hard to catch up. Region pop in 2000 was 5.2M and now it is over 7.5M. Everyone is leaving the far-outer suburbs and rural towns into the burbs and city. Feels claustrophobic
@Plus Ultra Gang also I’ve been to the top 10 most populated cities in the us. Dallas and houston easily have the worst sprawl. It’s pervasive and crowded and stretches for hundreds of square miles
Great video Kyle! Perhaps next you could look into the demographics of who exactly is driving these population growth trends? For example, my home state of California seems to be the one exception to the trend of folks fleeing small towns and the countryside and moving to the cities (mostly younger people in search of education and jobs). Here the population decline seems to be driven by people fleeing the large metro areas and relocating to cheaper places in the country (mostly well-off/upper-middle-class and retired folks). My parents are currently in the process of leaving the LA area and relocating to a rural part of the state up north where they plan to retire. I myself will be moving nearby since my company announced they will allow remote work indefinitely.
Yeah it's kinda the same in the San Joaquin Valley. A lot of people don't realize that a lot of inland CA isn't any more expensive than most other parts of the US.
@@GeographyKing Yup. That's definitely true. Luckily, my family and I are not really beach people so we don't mind being a few hours from the ocean, lol. The benefit of relocating within state is that my family and I can maintain the same level of income but our housing costs are lower.
Not an expert, but at this rate, most of the country will look gray, with mega-rich people buying up all the farmland, and politicians further ignoring rural problems like the loss of industry to foreign countries who practically cost nothing.
Rural America continues to decline, and it's sad to see.
Family farms forced to sell the the big boys
It’s not sad to me. All the new innovation and liveliness of new and upcoming American cities is exciting. Our cities are the backbone of our economy. 🤷♂️
@Retro SEGA and More not with the younger generations I don’t think that will happen. Most younger people want to live in cities. There is a huge demand for walkable community oriented cities amongst the younger generations right now. I think they choose the exciting life over the simpler. Just a trend I noticed tho 🤷♂️
@@nunyabailey you’re still asleep
@Retro SEGA and More I can see that happening on a small scale with city's that have problems surrounded by desirable rual areas, but many cities have been drastically improving themselves, while many rual areas just don't have much to offer regarding income, convenience, service's, and lifestyle. Its not just young people. Many older people are moving into cities as well for the convenience, and medical safety of living close to a hospital. Also, the work from home thing only affects a small portion of the workforce. Most people either work in the service industry, or trades, where working from home is not an option. You are right that some people will use the pandemic as an opportunity to get out of crappy cities, but the urban growth will always overshadow urban flight, unless there is a massive increase in "desirable" rual employment opportunities.
Most underrated channel on UA-cam. Thanks for the consistently intriguing and informative content. 🐐
Let's go Nuggets!
Go nuggets frfr
Nikola Jokic is carrying my fantasy team. God bless him and his 12 Coke a day diet
Go Nuggets
@@stakknation123 How many accounts do you have and why? Oh yeah, to crash conversations with your own BS
I fear working from home is gonna be the new frontier for corporate outsourcing. If you are only a zoom screen away, why couldn’t they just replace you with an educated worker from overseas for cheaper?
You don't realize how true that is. That's why occupational monoculture is SO dangerous. All the "jobs" in tech while high paying for now are eventually going to be outsourced and devastate the cities built and being built around them (Atlanta, San Francisco, The Bay Area, ect) are going to suffer the worst. It will be similar to what happened to Detroit and the "Rust Belt" after the automotive industry was outsourced.
You can...I used to work in the auto industry. Ford had designers in India working on car designs.
It’s definitely possible but it’s also already happening and happened in tech
Corporate greed has always been the poison of the American economy/dream. If they can outsource your job to save a couple bucks, they will. The bigger threat to your corporate job will come from software rather than people in foreign countries though. If your not the man in the corner office, then you are a tool, and you will collect dust if the man can find a more effective tool.
@@kazeryu17 Sorta. Software no matter how advance will still need some sort of human intervention to fully function properly. That being said the human they will pick work for a fraction of what they are worth and even more so in another heavily unregulated non American country.
The south Texas coastal counties that are declining are the “Wild Horse Desert”, mostly because of a geological feature called the south Texas sand sheet. It’s a massive area of almost nothing but very deep wind blown sand, hardly any surface water besides salty lakes. It’s a vast unpopulated, almost undevelopable area between Corpus and the Valley. Also the location of the King Ranch.
Thank you! I really appreciate the info
I live in Houston and used to drive to the valley to visit my brother and made the mistake of not fueling up before I got to this stretch. I think I went like 20 miles past E before luckily finding gas lol.
I wonder how SpaceX's placement of their Starship development facility will effect that region. Their development/launch site is located in Cameron County. Right now they have a big RV park and they make workers from LA take trips to the South Texas site. However, I could see them wanting permanent engineers in the region. This might prompt the region to become another "Space Coast" like Cape Canaveral in Florida. An industrial monoculture based solely around aerospace and tourism.
Also interesting is the fact that Elon Musk recently publicized his intention to acquire the area surrounding his launch site and incorporate it into a new city.
@@Astromatter It appears that a vast, unworkable desert is going to get some investment. Anyone who wants to invest in Corpus Christi might want to consider how to make money from nearby engineers. Meanwhile, potential homes go unfixed in Michigan, a state which won't invest in itself nor allow new business to come in.
Cameron County is in the Green.
Cameron County is Brownsville where SpaceX will be.
A lot of Winter Texans
It's really fascinating to see how high prices are having material effects in places like LA, the bay area, and Honolulu.
Very weird to see that Philly is growing but Silicon Valley is shrinking. Completely goes against the conventional wisdom of the past 50 years.
Also unrelated, but this channel is quickly becoming one of my favorites.
Thank you! I'm glad you like the videos! I think Philadelphia is a pretty good place for great big city stuff vs cost of housing
@@GeographyKing That’s very true, it’s a really cool city.
Biggest thing about philly is that it’s a relatively low cost city for how big it is. But it’s definitely a cool city too. It has a hipster, grungy vibe to it with some bouje areas too. Lot of job growth, history and culture. Many of the old buildings are being preserved, and new apartments are being built in former “sketchy” and run down areas. Check out philly sometime !
@@Dalt21 yeah I love Philly a lot. I’m going to school here and it’s a really awesome and exciting place to be, and in my experience, it’s really the only other city in the country that captures what NYC has, although Chicago also has an equally cool feel to it.
Nathaniel Thrush nice man! What school? But yeah I love philly, nyc, Chicago. I put DC and Boston up there on my favorite city lists too
You should make this a yearly series!
It might be hard to do this every year since the census only happens every 10 years
@@eggiegonzalez4290 Between census years, though, the Census Bureau still makes population estimates to the county level every year. Next ones are gonna be released in December this year for the state level, then in March next year we'll have new county level estimates.
@@abdullahaliabbasi786 ohhh ok I wasn’t aware. Hopefully he will make this a yearly thing
This wouldn’t change much year over year
I learned a lot about our country on a cross country bicycle ride. A woman in Kansas and I were talking about the shrinking small towns. She said, "When they close the school, that's it for the town." Lots of people have the fantasy of moving back to their roots or taking advantage of working from home in the country, but the reality is something different.
Opposite for me. I'll likely never be able to move back to my hometown because so many affluent people moved there it's too expensive now
@@ReverendMeat51 yea gentrification is a huge problem
I've heard that before lose a school and the town dies
from kansas. First its the infrastructure to go, then the businesses because of the infrastructure, then the hospitals, then the schools. That's the end right there. It's sad and could be fixed through government budget changes. People in power care about rural people when the vote. After election day, we don't cross their minds once.
Oh hey I'm about to go on a cross country bike ride too.
Kyle talking about NY: “IDK where they’re going”
Floridians: “Here!!”
@Monke I agree because I also live in Florida & my dad is from NY. I was also born here which is rare. Only 35.9% (as of 2018) were actually born here. The NYC metro area along with New England have been steadily coming here for 80 years (since WWII) & it’s only getting more noticeable & way higher these past 20 years. It’d probably be even higher if it included foreign-born people who immigrated to the NYC area first, then came down here.
@A J immigrants are so important
@@capnsteele3365 too many when the country needs to be fixed is bad
@@danialhalal immigrants aren't bad, they aren't the problem
Yep. Florida as well as New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut
Pittsburgh and western PA have a very high elderly population. The city of Pittsburgh itself rebounded well, but a lot of the old steel towns in surrounding counties didn’t benefit as much from the rebound of Pittsburgh. The surrounding counties have a lot of older towns. Butler county is seeing a lot of increase because people around pittsburgh are moving there for newer homes and better school districts, Butler county was mainly farmland 20 years ago but new development really is saturated there.
Thank you for the info!
@@GeographyKing no problem!
The growth in Butler County is mainly in southern Butler County (Cranberry, Seven Fields, Adams Twp., and up to Zelienople or Evans City). Otherwise, it's a lot like the other counties surrounding Allegheny. For Allegheny and the others, despite population decline, I think a lot are seeing lower decline than in previous decades. Basically, it's finally starting to level off. The demographics certainly don't help in making any kind of a rebound.
The thing going on in the coastal area of far south Texas is that the land belongs to large ranches, like the King Ranch.
Thank you for the info. I've been curious about that.
That makes the beaches inaccessible. So no one goes there. It would be a good sight for a resorts as Padre Island is a barrier island that protects the inner coast from storm surge, and most of the island is a wildlife preserve.
As someone from Champaign, yes we are happy to be mentioned and practically the only part of Illinois to be growing!
Is that the nice city of Illinois? Like how Grand Rapids is Michigan's nice city?
@@nothat0therguy992 i’m probably not qualified to say this (live in illinois but only been to champaign once) but The one time i went to champaign (to see university of illinois) it seemed very nice! Not too big, not too small, and it had a nice feel to it. I would say it’s one of the nicer areas
@@shane9245 If it's growing it might like the Illinois city, I know most Midwest states have a booming metro area. Like for instance Michigan's is Grand Rapids and Ohio's is Columbus, but I've never been certain what was Illinois boom metro
Champaign is as close as it gets to a boom area in Illinois. New highrises and construction all year. Most people here really enjoy how it is 'Just the right size' but it is a bit boring being in the middle of Illinois. However, Chicago is still building and developing a lot, just the growth rate is very minimal.
@@nothat0therguy992 very much a university town because University of Illinois is enormous, but it seems like a nice enough place regardless. The university leads to good job opportunities, surprisingly diverse with lots of food options, and the university has the best COVID testing program in the country that they've extended to locals too, which has significantly reduced cases and deaths compared to many surrounding areas.
Good video, man! It's simple, like a lecture, but I like it.
Only remark: It's hard to take an American seriously when he claims that there's no space left.
He doesn't mean that there's physically no space between there. He just means that the built up area of the two metro areas has merged, so there's no spare areas of countryside between them. It's all just a contiguous area of suburbs
When we say that, it's mostly when the suburbs of a citi are so far out that either a new economic center needs to be built up to maintain growth or housing prices skyrockets
I lived in Northwest Illinois for 23 years, just about everyone I went to school with, friends, and family have left the state. The state is literally crumbling. Left for Northwest LP Michigan and love it. Never looking back. Great video.
I have some family in Sterling. What do you think about that town?
@@sm3675 I lived just north of Sterling in Freeport, IL. Seemed to be one of the better towns in the area when I left, they have good factory jobs as well and safe. Just not for me, pretty boring area.
I recently moved to the Chicago area, and after I got here I was very surprised to find out how many people are leaving
Glad to have you in Michigan. As far as Illinois dying it truly is sad all around. Living in west Michigan myself I've been to Chicago my fair share of times and is one of my favorite places in the country, and my recent drive to Texas (which took us through most of Illinois) blew my mind on how empty it was outside of Chicago and was sad to see. Also hurts to see such a beautiful city like Chicago continuing to fall. Has one of the best skylines in the world but for how much longer.
I'm glad you left. Good riddance to you.
Kyle, we love you.
He’s married
@@xhafts lmao 😂
No homo
Holy cow your sub count! I haven't checked it in a few months but yeah, back when I subbed you had just a few thousand subscribers. Congratulations Kyle!
Thank you! There's been a lot of growth over the past several months
same here
I really appreciate you telling us where you got the information. So may other sites just spew out information and you have no idea if they just made everything up or if they really got it from a reputable source. Another reason I enjoy your site so much.
Really enjoyed this video Kyle. Would love a whole in depth series , taking 1 state or region and really digging into the census data!
Keep up the good work
Man this was just an intriguing video, it's nice to see population trends all over the country. I've been debating where I'm going to live. Love this channel.
This one is going to be interesting. I wanted to know more about this.
Idaho native here. It's definitely a seller's market--I just talked to a realtor who said that home inventory across the state is the lowest it's ever been. Housing prices up 100-300% over the last 5 years depending on what area of the state you are in. He said that he listed a house for $350k the other day that had 18 offers in the first 24 hours. 17 from Californians and one from a native. He told the native he would have to offer $80K over asking price if he wanted the home. Impossible to do when he is earning Idaho wage against the remote-working Californians making their comparatively massive wages (sidenote about how a federally-mandated minimum wage doesn't really make sense when you consider the vast economic differences between different areas, but we don't need to get into that here).
Just nuts. As one who will be opening a dentist office in the next few years I don't mind it, as long as I can still escape to my mountains and trails, which hopefully will take a long time for some of the non-natives to catch on to--some of the more hidden ones. I don't think growth is necessarily a bad thing--infrastructure is nice and beautiful and nothing is dilapidated out here in most of the cities of the west. People care about things and want them to be and look nice. There's plenty of jobs and resources for everyone. I like to ascribe to an abundance mentality instead of scarcity. But I am definitely sad to see lots of rural areas going (and to see so many California license plates with crazy people who drive like maniacs and are conservative by LA county standards but still liberal by intermountain west standards, and who move here seeking conservatism but still want to change things more liberally than the usual around here). Anyway, I think it's good. Just gotta find ways to appreciate it and to make friends with neighbors instead of being angry or upset about it like so many are.
I'm from the Idaho Falls area of Southeast Idaho and it seems to me that for about every 8 Californians that move here, only 2-3 stay after one winter. They aren't so fond of snow on the ground from late September to sometimes early June, as well as consistent -30F temperatures in January and February. Most end up moving on to Boise or Coeur D'alene where the weather is much more mild.
Great vid Kyle. Keep them coming!
I guess I'm going against the grain Kyle theorized in the video, but I live in Raleigh, NC, working remotely, and frankly I'm tired of the city, and especially NC's covid response, so I'm looking to move somewhere where I have a bit more independence. Idaho Falls is actually at the top of my list, I'm visiting in May to check it out. How do you like living there? Do you have any recommendations for places/restaurants/etc. I should see for the 4 days I'm there to get a good feel for the town?
@@0bennett0 Idaho Falls is awesome, though I'm not sure how much someone would enjoy it after moving from a big city. And I'm not saying that to discourage you from moving there, just passing it along as someone who has lived in both small and big cities. You won't find nightlife--in fact, most streets are pretty empty after 9pm (which I, for one, think is awesome). That said, some great places to see are the parks downtown around the river and the waterfalls, the museum of Idaho, the greenbelt, frisbee golf parks out in Ammon, and you might as well take a drive out to Swan Valley so you can see the potato, wheat, barley, and hops fields. Craters of the Moon National Monument isn't too far out into the desert and of course Yellowstone and Grand Teton NP aren't too far either. As far as restaurants go, Smitty's pancake and steak house is a local favorite. The Snakebite downtown is great, and the Chick Fil A is the only one between Idaho Falls and Centerville, UT (a suburb of Salt Lake City, about three hours away) so that's a huge hit. There's tons of gun ranges out west of town. To be honest, if you are looking for a lot to do or see that doesn't involve the outdoors, Idaho Falls doesn't have a lot. We do things outside with our awesome neighbors and the down-to-earth people and that's what makes it great. It's a small town community with a great economy that is built on and for strong families. It is generally much more white collar than the surrounding Idaho towns (Blackfoot, Pocatello, Rigby, etc are each much more blue collar, but I also think that's awesome). Best of luck!
@@tymarls Thanks very much for your recommendations! I will definitely check some of those spots out while I'm there. That sort of lifestyle sounds up my alley overall, and I will also admit that having a Chick-fil-a is a requirement for my place of residence, haha. Who knows, maybe I'll be getting my teeth cleaned at your dentist office in a few years? Thanks again, and best of luck to you, too.
It is really funny how so many border states talk about California. I'm clueless and do not have input. But interesting for sure. Oh, all I know is when San Francisco and more areas wanted to annex from the US after Trump was elected. Then and later on I have read that California alone would be the 6th wealthiest nation? So we might ought to keep them!!
Fort Wayne is actually pretty nice. The city is seeing a steady stream of investment and has improved its downtown area. The surrounding area is somewhat like western Michigan where it’s fairly rural but has maintained a decent manufacturing base
I’ve always called Ft. Wayne Indiana’s Grand Rapids. They have a good amount in common. GR for the youth and FW for families.
Fort wayne and south bend seem pretty nice to someone from southwest michigan. I've never been but they seem nice 😁
Glad to see Wisconsin is going a bit against the trend of rural counties losing population, however I’m sad to see my home Milwaukee County losing population, however I think that will change in the coming years
The population is honestly almost exactly the same as it was in 2010 depending on the year it has slightly grown or shrunk.
The reason for this is the city of Milwaukee is building thousands of apartment units (I’m not exaggerating) a year in downtown and near neighborhoods but the inner city is being abandoned at the same time. It’s kind of interesting.
Alot harder getting away with drinking and driving in the city
What may help WI is there are attractions or worthwhile city visits all along I90/94: LaCrosse has the Mississippi, Dells has waterparks, Madison has an abundance of things, then you get to Milwaukee. Not along I90 there are plenty of worthy stops too: Green Bay for a game, Kohler for golf, Door County for nature. Just a great state even if the Northern part isn’t as populated.
Yeah right now the area between Milwaukee and Madison is facing a huge demand for housing as the majority of this area is suburban sprawl many are moving here houses are selling on average of less then 5 days it’s pretty nuts right now not to mention almost every farm plot is being turned into new developments with well over 60% of the homes here being built over the past 30 years
Glad to see my home state doing pretty well. I'm in Philadelphia and definitely not surprised to see the whole metro area is growing, but as someone who REALLY enjoys going out deeper into this half of the state for the amazing parks and lovely small cities, I'm really happy to see the region growing across the board. I think PA is doing a very good job with revitalizing its small cities. Easton, Bethlehem, Lancaster, York, and a few other towns like Jim Thorpe are nestled at the footsteps of amazing landscape and they're all repurposing the steel and coal infrastructure into cool spaces and maintaining very good universities (Lehigh, Lafayette, Millersville, York) and have great dining. And they're affordable. I'm sure the growth of the natural gas industry in the state helps too, but honestly I'm not sure which part of the state exports most of that. But it's a great area of the country and the property is still cheap up in the mountainous regions. Obviously some of those small Pocono towns have their issues, but as far as nice weekend getaways and beautiful landscapes go, it's so awesome.
I agree, Philly has been on the up recently and it’s great to see. I think our location right in the middle of the NE Megalopolis and access to great cities such as NYC and DC, the Pocono Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean.. I can get to ocean city NJ in an hour from center city without traffic :). Winters have been mild and no snow recently is a plus, although the summers are longer now and overtaking fall which is my favorite season.
Nice, I was just watching your us Mexico border vid when this came out, love this channel!
LOVE THIS!! I’m a huge geography data nerd as I studied G.I.S in college! Thanks for the state by state facts!
The honest truth, as quiet as it's kept, is that Chicago is growing again. Recently talked to Real Estate agents I personally know in the area, they say alot of people from all over the US are moving in in large numbers. Majority of migrants are from NYC and LA areas. I guess everyone in America's 3 mega cities shuffle quite a bit.
Chicago has lots of problems but also a lot of potential. It’s pretty affordable for a city of its size and with its world class institutions. They really need an outer loop on their el train to make it easier to go across town without having to go downtown. Directly link regional centers and desaturate the core of the system.
the real population thats leaving are the richer folk and any poorer highschool graduates who are able to leave to get college dgrees
Same here in NYC. A bunch of people move out yet there's a lot of apartments being built still that people are still moving in to
A lot of black owe business opening up that's good but Chicago grown not lot tho
Yeah I think the population decline might be reversing. Homes are selling within days for prices about 25% more than they were a few years ago.
I lived in Lake County, Indiana for a long time and some of my relatives live there. It’s pretty depressing, there isn’t that much to do, but some of the towns are growing while some of the larger ones like Hammond and Gary are shrinking in population
my grandma lives there (lake station) and they are building homes in the southern part of the county. All the Chicago people are moving there that’s probably the reason why Lake county isn’t losing population as much.
Watching from Collin County Texas, one of the fastest growing in the country!
One thing that I noticed from the map and you failed to mention is the influence of public land on population specifically decline. Most of Vermont is National Forest. Huge portions of New Mexico are federal or Indian Land. Huge Parts of Alaska are federal land. Even huge portions of Upstate New York are federal and state land that have high restrictions on development.
The place where your logic falls apart is that those vast areas don’t need that vast land to be developed for population to grow. There’s towns there, they are losing people. People are leaving. It’s not that the vast forest isn’t getting developed. It’s that people are leaving.
@@steviesevieria1868 where your logic falls apart is in the jobs department. People move where the work is and if employers can't develop the land people will move where the employers can develop the land.
@@Scott-by9ks I’ve worked out a number of jobs and I’ve never worked at any that required land development. The office building was already there.
@@Scott-by9ks especially not necessary to “develop” national parks and national forests etc. ...for jobs ...that’s ridiculous, just destruction for the sake of destruction, Trump style.
@@steviesevieria1868 that was not what I was suggesting. My point was that people move where the jobs are. I don't see people leaving rural areas as a problem. People move for better opportunities or a cheaper cost of living. This is a good thing in my opinion.
Hey Kyle. I just wanted to say that I appreciate this channel so much! Thank you!
I'm glad you like the videos!
"Nobody likes New Mexico." How can you say that about your favorite state, Kyle! LOL But anyway, great analysis! Really enjoyed it.
Santa Fe is great !
Shhhhhhhh, it's true, don't come to new mexico to live you will hate it... Rob from Abq
@@newmexrob99 hey I've been to Rio Rancho and it seems awwight
Agreed, Santa Fe reminds me of how Austin was 20-25 years ago. Absolutely gorgeous and lovely weather.
This is just what I needed today. My life’s mission is to reverse the trends of the Midwest depopulation.
Same, I’m from Columbus, OH and a lot of people here come from depopulated rural areas, I think that the only way to fix the depopulation is to revitalize the rural areas and bring new jobs to the areas severely hurt by jobs going to Mexico or China
get alot of new tech. If you are able to transform the farms of the midwest you may be able to save them
How do you reckon you will accomplish your life's mission?
@@sigmaballsnetwork Those which were once outsourced will be automated if they haven't already been.
@@suprensa4393 I wish I could give you a concrete answer. Advertising, jobs, some sort of technology I can’t comprehend.
We need to make America more friendly to small business and farms. Large all consuming industries just sell us the product, outsource the work to third countries, without any of us benefiting financially. It would be so cool if having and running a small piece of land could be seen as a good way to live again, because most people don't even want office jobs or a 9-5 but just want peace of mind and a sense of fulfillment and place of being. City life is fine, totally acceptable, but it shouldn't be the ONLY way to make a living while small towns continue to die.
I'd hope that as internet speeds get faster and more people work from home that maybe rural areas can get some decent paying jobs that will keep people from moving, but who knows.
I agree but with most of the current policies, raising the minimum wage in particular, I think it's very unlikely to happen in the near future.
This is the quality content I come for! This was really interesting!
I am from Greenville, SC and it’s been fascinating to watch the city transform since the 90’s. I also lived for while in Franklin Co. VT, 7 miles from Quebec. Had no idea it was growing. 🤷♂️
Geography nerds unite!!!
We have found our leader.
I agree!
Excellent video. Former MS resident. That NW green area is Tupelo. Oxford’s county is declining.
Thanks for always bringing in authoritative sources and complementing it with your own analysis. Reliable, strong content on this channel.
Speaking from the perspective of an upstate NYer, I think it’s important to highlight the effect of wealthier people moving out of the cities (at least in this area) out to more rural areas, driving up housing costs. Then the residents aren’t able to afford the same properties they were renting, then generally move to more urban areas because that’s where more housing/social services opportunities are. The trend alone misses that. That aside this is my favorite channel to nerd out on, I love a good map.
Upstate NYer here myself. Would you say more of us are moving to big cities up-state (Syracuse, Buffalo, Rochester) OR the Big City (NYC)
@@BillDotree where I am (about 2 hours due north of NYC, not really what many consider truly upstate) I see most people either go to Newburgh or the NYC metro area if in need of housing. Only reason they go to newburgh there because they get a ton of state funding for this kind of thing. But any further upstate, I’d think they’d be more inclined to move to the smaller cities you suggested
Best UA-cam channel
Agreed! Super underrated and deserves more subs
Really great video, Kyle. I'd be interested in seeing a map that shows maybe 3-4 tiers of total growth/decline per county- think that would help make more clear which of these green/gray areas are really staying stable vs. which ones are significantly changing.
Texan here. Love your videos, but gotta disagree with what you say at 11:18 about how in 10 years there won't be any space between the major Texas metro areas. Dallas and Houston will never connect. It's over 100 very, very rural miles on I-45 between Corsicana and Huntsville, and even those aren't exactly integral parts of the metro areas. San Antonio to DFW is a little more plausible (it's practically constant between San Antonio & Waco now), but Waco to Alvarado or Waxahachie is still quite rural and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Hill County (Hillsboro, where I-35E & W split) is actually the only county on I-35 between south of San Antonio and the Red River that is NOT part of any Metropolitan or Micropolitan Statistical Area.
I'd prefer it stays mostly rural fir the next 100 years
I love looking up city populations
As someone who just left Humboldt county CA, it's so economically depressed that even the relative affordability of housing compared to the rest of CA is still too much.
We gotta get this man a new mic
you’d make a great professor or instructor. Your explanations are far easier to understand and interesting than those of many professors I’ve had!
"I'm not sure what's driving the growth in northeastern South Dakota" lol your channel is great man you know so much about geography, keep it up! Almost nobody knows as much about county-level growth than you probably
As a young professional from Ohio, I often ponder if it would be more advantageous for me to go to the areas gaining or losing population. I worked in Cincinnati until last April, and I have a new job lined up that will be initially remote, but will eventually send me to Buffalo (where population is declining). And if the permanence of remote work continues to expand, should I try and find fully remote work in order to settle down exactly where I want to be, maybe somewhere cheap and/or out of the way? It feels like the pandemic has opened the floodgates for some significant changes regarding movement of people.
Neat video. I lived in Pittsburgh for 6 years, moved away in 2017. The city has been on an upward trend for years, with growth in medical, banking, and high tech industries. Tons of young people moving there (I was one of them). However, I think the decline in population is probably explainable in terms of some combination of lower birthrates in the northeast, and perhaps also a lingering effect of the loss of manufacturing that started there in the 1970's. Pittsburgh itself is doing great because of the industries I mentioned, and because of its universities, but many of the areas outside the city are pretty economically depressed. Some of the suburbs north of the city are wealthy (Fox Chapel, Sewickley, etc.), but areas to the south (e.g. Homestead, Braddock, McKeesport, etc.) in particular are very poor. Manufacturing jobs disappeared, and unlike in Pittsburgh, nothing took its place.
Especially in megalopolies like what’s going on in Texas, this map shows a fair amount of urban sprawl.
Small retail businesses in small town Main Street USA are being replaced by e-commerce from Amazon warehouses in cities.
Former and future Hamilton county Tennessee resident here, Thank you for this fantastic video!
I lived in El Paso for about 10 years and then took an assignment overseas that ended up being 20 years, met my wife during that time, had 3 children and when I returned my main concern was my children's future. I chose the DFW area because the growth and job opportunities were outstanding and I feel was the best decision I've made. Today, all the kids are grown and all have jobs that allow them to live on their own.
Very cool video. You truly deserve that 100% like ratio. Lol. I'm so glad I found this channel.
Like the Isley Brothers on your wall! Amazing and underappreciated musicians.
The other week he had Maggotbrain from Funkadelic and the Greatest Hits of Sly and the Family Stone. Superb!
Current resident of Allen County in NE Indiana - the recent regional growth isn't a surprise to those of us locally, as the whole area has banded together in recent years to create some major quality-of-life improvements including several $100m+ economic development initiatives in the main city of Fort Wayne. Construction recently started on a $250m mixed use project in the downtown area. Because the city is doing so well, the entire region is beginning to benefit.
I like Fort Wayne. Its urban core isn’t carved apart by highways like most US cities.
I live in the Triad of NC. There is almost no space between the Triad and the Triangle as you noted. I live in Winston-Salem and you can almost essentially drive on the highway and remain in some city/large town the entire way all the way to Raleigh. There might be a small gap between Greensboro and Burlington but otherwise, it has all pretty much grown together. Soon (10-20 years) there will probably not be much room between the Triad and the Charlotte area either. I love North Carolina and things are certainly changing around here, as of right now it seems for the best!
Along I-40 I would agree. But the most efficient route between Raleigh and Charlotte is via US64 and that's about 100 miles of mostly empty between Apex and Concord.
I'm such a Geography nerd... I love this map! You can really infer a lot by looking at it! Love this channel!!
Super interesting Kyle! Love these trend vids you do, really shows the power of maps to tell a story. The map along with your narration is really neat. Plus love the web page find I’ll be wasting lots of time on it myself
Thank you! I'm glad you liked the video
Bowling Green surprisingly is doing quite well in South-Western Kentucky, the largest attraction to the city is the base of WKU. Which is actually an expanding college.
The secret behind that there is a HUGE percentage of wku students are from Louisville
I have an idea for a video. Tourist traps, you seem to be brutally honest with those. As a poor father, it would be great to know what to avoid with what little money for vacationing I have. Keep up the good work brother!
I enjoy the detail of your comments.
Fantastic survey, I've spotted quite a few of these localised economic hotspots through different data streams so to see you go through each region stage by stage is awesome.
The point is, and so many partisans who crow about the decline of NYC etc don't seem to get is that wherever it is in the World, in whatever the era, humans have gravitated towards more work opportunities, every time. People vote with their feet, it's really that simple.
New to this channel and have spent much longer reading the comments than I normally do, it's full of smart people having interesting things to say as opposed to so much of the nonsense that infests so many other video comment sections on UA-cam sadly.
Thanks for putting this together Kyle. This is really helpful for me to enlighten the financial advisors I work with throughout the country.
Oregon: *Legalizes Shrooms*
Hmmm I wonder why there’s so much population growth right across the border from California.
Mostly Legal Gambling
I think the legalization happened after 2019 though
Slightly more lax gun laws, too.
To get away from Californians for one
All hail our Geography King! You put out some thoughtful stuff, I can see you have fun making it as well.
Quickly closing in on 100K subscribers and the coveted Silver Play Button, well done Kyle.
Nice video Kyle. I was raised in PA and can identity with your analysis. I grew up in the eastern part on the border with NJ. The eastern part is the happening part, closer to the action in NY and NJ. Many people commute to these places for work. The western and central parts, arguably, are more like the Midwest. I left the state in my late 20's due to lack of opportunities, so I can definitely agree with the trend of heading to larger cities. The rural towns are beautiful and nice places to maybe retire, but not to launch a career.
That Northeast corner of Indiana is the home of massive industrial growth. The unemployment rate is super low and the factories pay really well. Unfortunately, housing is scarce and the industry is heavily dependent on the recreational vehicle (think campers) industry.
Even during the pandemic, city populations in places like Nashville and Austin are growing fast
@Plus Ultra Gang Seemingly true. The downtown area is growing fast with all these high rises but then it's essentially suburbs directly outside of that
Yep I’m from Nashville it’s growing like crazy
Interestingly a lot of people from Austin are moving to Nashville, especially since a lot of musicians and people in the music industry are being priced out of Austin.
Informative as always, Kyle/GK. A small suggestion/critique: I would like to see data aggregated into 5 categories of lots of growth, moderate growth, more or less no change, moderate decline, steep decline. Or even just three sets of increase, decrease, essentially no change.
Man what a great channel. For major cities, Baltimore City for example is losing and you can see that blip on your map since Baltimore City is reported separately since it is not inside of any county. I suspect that if you look at city specific data, you would start seeing more Baltimore blips pop up, like Detroit and Chicago. Also, instances where the county metro areas are gaining for all the reasons you state, yet the major city inside the metro is losing.
Great video! A little info about eastern N.C. The part that's growing (the Outer Banks) is a barrier island chain with many beach towns (Nags Head, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills). Once you get a few miles from the coast, it's very swampy and as rural as many places out West. There are stretches of road where you don't get to a town for 20-40 miles, and all the towns are tiny.
As a foreigner, it feels despairing that although America's population is still increasing, several parts of the country are declining. This channel is great, keep up the good work.
I think it’s pretty universal. Almost everywhere in the world, rural populations are decline while urban populations are booming.
great insight, I think the people leaving cities are just moving to the suburb of that city, which is often in the same county
I love map analysis. Thanks for this!
the tennesee/georgia/NC boom has been fascinating to me
Its pretty much Nashville, Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh, that area
Ooo this is gonna be a fun one
Wow, those are some low populations. My county is around 100k and I thought that was low. I can't imagine living in a less populated county.
Would love an updated version of this
Love all your vids ! Extremely interesting . i always get lost looking at maps . lol!! i love these map vids. Thanks Kyle
We stan a (geography) king 👑
I can get behind these stats. I just relocated to Cincinnati, OH and it looks like Hamilton county is experiencing its first population growth in decades.
Cincinnati is the most underrated city in the country
It is and I live here. And I agree, it is one of the most underrated cities. It's a beautiful city with lots of cultural and history not to mention arts, sports, colleges/universities, first rate zoo, Kings Island. Just no beach.
Another reason people are leaving small towns and rural areas is because no one wants to become farmers, miners, or go into other rough simple jobs that used to be a big backbone of the economy. Which is kind of sad because we still need people in those areas.
In PA it’s becoming night and day. In the southeast the population and economy are booming and in the west(minus Pittsburg) and north its declining. A lot of that area is so rural too. It’s creating a huge divide in the population
So close to 100k can’t wait
Thanks for this fascinating look at our population trends. I can surely see a dramatic increase here in the rural foothills of NC over the last 30 years. It would be interesting to see how the influx of foreigners (legal immigrants like me) has affected this map.
"why no growth in eastern nc...is it too swampy?" thats the area known as the Great Dismal Swamp lol
I've also heard part of the reason is big commercial pig farms and the smells that come with that. It is a beautiful area (what I've seen of it) but yeah, I can understand not wanting to smell pig waste 24 - 7.
Recent frequent hurricanes have probably played a part.
It’s super poor in that area too, trailers with tarps for walls and such.
@@sharonallen6921 heard the same thing
Hurricanes, and the cities just outside of that area have been rapidly growing for a while. Also, with the exception of there beaches(which are nowhere near as popular as myrtle beach, or virginia beach) its economy is mostly agriculture.
Another great vid! Thanks, Geography King!
I suspect that the Silicon Valley area may not see growth for a long time - yes, wages are high but real estate (either to buy or rent) is astronomical. And new housing is built on zero-lot line plots with only a patio for a yard. Families do not like living like that since the kids need to run - and if your "yard" is only 25' wide, you really can't do too much running!
We moved from San Mateo County to Kailua-Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii in order to live much more cheaply than we could ever do in the Bay Area. Property taxes are very low, as are taxes in general. Yes, we pay a lot more for gas and our electricity costs are among the highest in the nation. But we don't drive all that far (here on the BI, we CAN drive nearly 400 miles but that would be for a vacation, not a commute) and solar panels really reduce electricity costs.
If you're retired, living on a tropical island with most of the amenities of the mainland, it's truly a paradise! Plus...we don't have the severity of weather one finds on the mainland nor do we need to put up with the crime most of the major metro areas have. Honolulu County (on the island of Oahu) is declining due to extreme costs of living: rent or purchase prices are way up there and salaries do not afford those costs easily. That explains why Honolulu is losing population to islands like the Big Island.
Thanks for your work on your channel. I look forward to your posts just to see what else you publish.
"North-Eastern South Dakota" kinda had me like o_O
LMAO
I wonder if these areas like northern california and northeast indiana, which are totally different than the surrounding areas in a way that doesn't make too much sense, are close to the margin of growth/decline. So while they are certainly distinct on the map, their population growth rates may not be terribly different from the surrounding counties of a different color. I can't say for sure because of the binary nature of this data. I would be extremely interested to perform some spatial analysis on county growth data to get a more granular picture of growth rates. I will follow up this comment with my own spatial analysis, including raw growth rates and spatially smoothed growth rates, once I get the chance to!
P.S. I am thrilled by your analysis in the video! I'm very impressed at the breadth of knowledge you have about all these different places in America.
Awesome vid, I just love diving into this kinda stuff
King, Northern Indiana is the R.V. capital of America and Ft Wayne is automotive component mfg. Delaware is a tax haven for NE/Mid Atlantic. No sales tax and very low property tax. Retired are flocking to Lewes, Rehoboth building a dream home for 309k with $3000 real estate tax.
Northern Indiana also has the Amish to keep the birth rate up
Delaware is great. I was lucky enough to get a professional job in New Castle County and my mortgage payment is half of what my rent was when I lived in MA, 3/4th what it was in NJ, and amenities and services here - commuter rail, infrastructure, etc - is comparable. The state is on track to break a million people in a few years and will trade spots with Rhode Island population-wise - a state I used to work in years ago that can't seem to reverse its 100-year downward trend.
This is a great video. Thank you for giving all this information so clearly.
Howdie Kyle, another great vidieo . Thanks . 👍
Really liked your analysis. Ever thought about doing a map based on property values and poulton and why people are moving around? For example: in the Denver area there is a housing shortage but if you go back 50 years there are two areas northeast and northwest of the city that are unusable because of cold war manufacturing. Perhaps there are more micro effects that are contributing to your thesis. Love the channel.
I was born in 99, and living in DFW that whole time makes it feel hard to catch up. Region pop in 2000 was 5.2M and now it is over 7.5M. Everyone is leaving the far-outer suburbs and rural towns into the burbs and city. Feels claustrophobic
@Plus Ultra Gang I haven’t seen that 8.1M figure. Did census release an update?
@Plus Ultra Gang also I’ve been to the top 10 most populated cities in the us. Dallas and houston easily have the worst sprawl. It’s pervasive and crowded and stretches for hundreds of square miles
Great video Kyle! Perhaps next you could look into the demographics of who exactly is driving these population growth trends? For example, my home state of California seems to be the one exception to the trend of folks fleeing small towns and the countryside and moving to the cities (mostly younger people in search of education and jobs). Here the population decline seems to be driven by people fleeing the large metro areas and relocating to cheaper places in the country (mostly well-off/upper-middle-class and retired folks). My parents are currently in the process of leaving the LA area and relocating to a rural part of the state up north where they plan to retire. I myself will be moving nearby since my company announced they will allow remote work indefinitely.
Yeah it's kinda the same in the San Joaquin Valley. A lot of people don't realize that a lot of inland CA isn't any more expensive than most other parts of the US.
@@GeographyKing Yup. That's definitely true. Luckily, my family and I are not really beach people so we don't mind being a few hours from the ocean, lol. The benefit of relocating within state is that my family and I can maintain the same level of income but our housing costs are lower.
Love these videos, and I'm curious how this map is going to change in the next 5 years.
Not an expert, but at this rate, most of the country will look gray, with mega-rich people buying up all the farmland, and politicians further ignoring rural problems like the loss of industry to foreign countries who practically cost nothing.
Excellent job kyle
Thank you!