skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Biden administration moves to protect Alaska wilderness; opening statements and first witness in NY trial; SCOTUS hears Starbucks case, with implications for unions on the line; rural North Carolina town gets pathway to home ownership.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The Supreme Court weighs cities ability to manage a growing homelessness crisis, anti-Israeli protests spread to college campuses nationwide, and more states consider legislation to ban firearms at voting sites and ballot drop boxes.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Wyoming needs more educators who can teach kids trade skills, a proposal to open 40-thousand acres of an Ohio forest to fracking has environmental advocates alarmed and rural communities lure bicyclists with state-of-the-art bike trail systems.

Report: Rural Areas See Population “Bookends”

play audio
Play

Tuesday, December 13, 2011   

YANKTON, S.D. - Rural areas in the Northern Plains region continue to lose population, according to a new report from the Center for Rural Affairs (CFRA). It shows that communities in those areas are caught between "bookend generations," with the youngest and oldest residents on hand, and a demographic "valley" in between.

Jon Bailey, research director at the Center, says many rural areas keep up with urban areas in terms of the number of younger residents, until the kids hit about age 20, when those numbers start to lag. He says that puts some unique pressures on rural areas.

"The youngest and oldest generations tend to need more services than the middle-aged working generations, so you have needs for schools and health care and other social and human services. And I think the implication there is, 'How are rural communities going to provide those services for their youngest and oldest citizens?'"

Bailey points out that people tend to generate the most tax revenue and spending to keep economies going when they are in their 20s through 50s, when they are working and raising families. He says the research demonstrates the need to focus on new ways to create rural economic opportunities.

According to Bailey, census information shows nearly half of the rural population is age 45 and older, and that federal policy changes are needed to help rural communities deal with their demographic changes. But first, he says, rural residents can help themselves, by changing their own attitudes.

"I think the worst thing often that adults do to their children, or to young people in the community, is send out the message that the best thing you can do is leave, and don't come back; and I think we need to change that mindset in rural communities."

The report recommends that a Rural Renewal Initiative be created in the next national farm bill, and that Congress should commit $500 million over five years to a Community Prosperity Fund to help rural areas stabilize.

The report, "Age Distribution on the Great Plains, is available at files.cfra.org






get more stories like this via email

more stories
Several Mississippi correctional facilities offer both short-term (12 weeks) and long-term (six months) alcohol and drug programs with individual and group counseling for treating alcohol and drug addictions. (Wesley JvR/peopleimages.com)

Social Issues

play sound

Mississippi prisons often lack resources to treat people who are incarcerated with substance-use disorders adequately but a nonprofit organization is …


Social Issues

play sound

April is Second Chance Month and many Nebraskans are celebrating passage of a bipartisan voting rights restoration bill and its focus on second chance…

Health and Wellness

play sound

New Mexico saw record enrollment numbers for the Affordable Care Act this year and is now setting its sights on lowering out-of-pocket costs - those n…


Migrants are put on buses from Texas to other states, often without knowing where they are going. (afishman64/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

The future of Senate Bill 4 is still tangled in court challenges. It's the Texas law that would allow police to arrest people for illegally crossing …

Social Issues

play sound

Residents in a rural North Carolina town grappling with economic challenges are getting a pathway to homeownership. In Enfield, the average annual …

Social Issues

play sound

A new poll finds a near 20-year low in the number of voters who say they have a high interest in the 2024 election, with a majority saying they hold …

Social Issues

play sound

A case before the U.S. Supreme Court could have implications for the country's growing labor movement. Justices will hear oral arguments in Starbucks …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021