BIG PICTURE: Alabama and the long decline of rural population

 

Top headline:  Birmingham Watch, 1/19/2024

Population:  Wikipedia

Bottom headline:  Alabama 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.

 

Related reading:

The Rural Yonder, 4/2/2024

Related posts:

April 2024

Population loss:  Northern and western rural counties lead the way in Pennsylvania.  (4/2)

Big Picture:  Then there's rural Valley County, Montana, where the population has dropped 56% since its 1960 peak of 17,080.  (4/2)

March 2024

Residents of fastest growing county in Arkansas aren't big fans of Donald Trump.  (3/23)

Population loss along U.S. highway 6 in Pennsylvania.  (3/19)

14 of Wisconsin's 72 counties have experienced population gain of at least 1% since 2020.  (3/18)

One-third of Wisconsin's 72 counties have lost population since 2020.  (3/18)