Retiring Guy's Digest: Population loss in Mississippi: Sharkey County/Rolling Fork

Saturday, October 5, 2019

Population loss in Mississippi: Sharkey County/Rolling Fork

It all started here.

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

Source: Wikipedia (Sharkey County, Rolling Fork)

Rolling Fork is the county seat in Sharkey 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:

21.5% - Sharkey County
21.3% - Mississippi
30.9% - U.S.

Percentage of population 65 and older:

19.1% - Sharkey County
15.9% - Mississippi
16.0% - U.S.

% of population living in poverty:

35.5% - Sharkey County
19.7% - Mississippi
11.8% - U.S.

The last time Sharkey County voted for a Republican candidate for president was in 1972. Clinton received 67.5% of the vote in 2016. George Wallace received 49.3% of the vote in 1968, a plurality.

Sharkey-Issaquena Public Library

Related reading:
Where Floods of ‘Biblical Proportion’ Drowned Towns and Farms. (The New York Times, 7/30/2019)

“We’re a small community, and it ripples down,” said Andy Anderson, the chief executive of Anguilla Bank, the only local bank in Sharkey and Issaquena Counties, where the combined population totals 5,774. “It ripples into the churches, it ripples into the schools, and several businesses here are feeling the crunch.”

Hunting brings in tourists and income during the winter months, but the deer population has been so thinned that the season could be curtailed or canceled altogether.