Is your county dying?

by Daniel Cubias

The U.S. population is growing at its lowest rate since the Great Depression. But what does this statistic really tell us?

Well, among other things, it means that for the first time in American history, large swaths of the country are essentially emptying out. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, “a near-record number of U.S. counties are experiencing more deaths than births in their communities, a phenomenon demographers call natural decrease.”

Of course, there’s a more common term for it: ghost town.

When deaths outnumber births in an area, both intuition and government statistics tell us that the place is doomed. By this standard, almost one-quarter of the nation’s counties (760 out of 3,142) are fading away, and it’s happening in just about every region of America.

It’s natural to ask why chunks of the United States are withering up and being handed over to scurrying rodents and patches of weeds. The Census Bureau says that “common threads among the dying counties are older whites who are no longer having children….The places also have fewer Hispanic immigrants.”

Yes, you read that correctly. The fewer Hispanics that a place has, the more likely it is to be wiped off the map. In fact, one researcher says that “in some cases, the only thing that can pull an area out is an influx of young Hispanic immigrants or new economic development.”

I wouldn’t count on Tiny Town, Vermont, snagging a new economic development anytime soon. So it comes down to young Latinos, especially immigrants, moving in.

This development is ironic, of course, in that so many states are eager to push out immigrants (undocumented or otherwise) in their zeal to accommodate an increasingly nativist political base. But doing so may sign the death warrant for towns and counties where an older population – who are most likely to be anti-immigrant — means imminent obsolescence.

As such, perhaps in the future, these same places will plead for immigrants to give their area a chance and thus save it from extinction. And at that time, the boogeyman will magically turn into the savior.

To learn more about Daniel, visit Hispanic Fanatic.

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those
of the author and should not be understood to be shared by Being Latino, Inc.

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