Tuesday, April 2, 2024

BIG PICTURE: Alabama and the long decline of rural population

 
Top headline:  Birmingham Watch, 1/19/2024
PopulationWikipedia
Bottom headlineAlabama Reflector, 1/19/2024


From the Birmingham Watch:
Population is declining in Alabama’s rural counties, particularly in the Black Belt, even as urban and suburban counties are growing. 
As the population has dropped off, good-paying jobs have left. The population has gotten older and sicker, but hospitals have closed and doctors have left the area. With fewer students, schools have become fewer and farther between. 
The Alabama Reflector investigated these issues and produced a three-part series:
From the Alabama Reflector: 
The lack of health care providers in rural Alabama is stark. Most of Alabama’s rural counties have significantly more people per primary care physician than urban counties. Butler County, where Hashaway lives, has just one primary care physician per 4,900 residents, according to data from County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (CHR&R), a University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute program. The average in Alabama is 1,520 people per one physician.
 
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