Depopulation is defined as chronic population loss that prevents cities and counties from returning to earlier peak populations. In more specific terms, researchers often refer to depopulation as occurring when a county reached its peak population by 1950 and then lost at least 25 percent of its peak by 2010. Depopulation is a massive, rapidly growing problem plaguing much of the rural United States today. The root cause of the problem stems from an increasingly urban settlement system, shifts away from farming and other extractive industries, and the rise of a global economy. 

 

Rural populations have been left behind in the urban settlement systems, and today, over one-third of all rural counties in the United States are depopulating. Only 6.2 million residents remain in these counties, 30 percent fewer than lived there in 1950. These rural counties are heavily concentrated in the Midwest, and the rates are staggering for depopulation in comparison to metropolitan counties. More than 46 percent of rural counties are depopulating, compared to 24 percent of adjacent nonmetropolitan counties, and just 6 percent of metropolitan counties. Between 2010 and 2016, 462,000 more people left rural areas than moved in, and the majority of nonmetropolitan counties experienced net out-migration.

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