Population loss in rural Nebraska: Nuckolls County

Source:  Wikipedia (Nuckolls County, Nelson)

Nelson is the county seat of Nuckolls County.

Population loss by degrees:  80-89%, 70-79%, 60-69%, 50-59%.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts

Percentage of population 25 and older with a bachelor's degree:

• 19.1% - Nuckolls County
• 30.6% - Nebraska
• 30.9% - U.S.

Percentage of population 65 and older:

• 26.8% - Nuckolls County
• 15.4% - Nebraska
• 15.6% - U.S.

The last time Nuckolls County voted for a Democratic candidate for president was in 1964. (LBJ won by a margin of 17 percentage points over Barry Goldwater in 1964.  George Wallace received 5.4% of the vote in 1968.)

Nelson Public Library

Photo credit:  Nebraska Library Commission

Related reading:
Vanishing Point:  Amid Dying Towns of Rural Plains, One Makes a Stand.  (The New York Times, 12/1/2003)

When death comes to a small town, the school is usually the last thing to go. A place can lose its bank, its tavern, its grocery store, its shoe shop. But when the school closes, you might as well put a fork in it. 

So it was in Hardy, one of many last-gasp towns in Nuckolls County, Neb., along the Kansas state line. A rock memorial, overgrown by grass and weeds, rests like a tombstone under sagging football goal posts. The stone marks where the Hardy school used to be, where the wind carried voices of children -- the joyous static of tomorrow. 

This year, Nuckolls County, population 4,843, lost another two schools, to budget cuts and declining enrollment, perhaps dooming another pair of towns to Hardy's fate in a region that has seen nearly two-thirds of its population disappear since 1920.

Since the article was published, Nuckolls County's population has declined by 12%.  In 2017, Hardy is down to an estimated 150, down from its 1910 peak of 496, a drop of 70%.

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