Retiring Guy's Digest: Population loss in North Dakota: McIntosh County

Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Population loss in North Dakota: McIntosh County

It all started here.

Population loss as in major -- 50% or more.

Source: Wikipedia (McIntosh County, Ashley)

Ashley is the county seat of McIntosh County.

Population loss by degrees: 80-90%, 70-79%, 60-69%, 50-59%.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts

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

17.2% - McIntosh County
28.9% - North Dakota
30.9% - U.S.

Percentage of population 65 and older:

30.7% - McIntosh County
15.3% - North Dakota
15.6% - U.S.

The last time McIntosh County voted Democratic in a presidential election was 1936. Trump won 76.1% of the vote in 2016.

Related reading:

North Dakota Town's Payoff For Hard Lives Is Long Life. (The New York Times, 7/31/2003)

What happens when young people leave town in droves, never to return. Whatever the travails of old farming communities of the Great Plains, with population decline and temperatures that swing 120 degrees from January to July, something about these places produces triple-digitarians even as people plug their arteries with sausage, strudel and dumplings soaked in gravy.

Survivors of scarlet fever and smallpox epidemics, the Dust Bowl and the Depression, they have been cracking 100 at least since 1950. The 2000 census found that McIntosh County, where Ashley is located, had the highest proportion of people 85 and older among the nation's 3,142 counties. North Dakota had the highest proportion among the states.