{"id":17650,"date":"2013-05-23T16:12:20","date_gmt":"2013-05-23T22:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=17650"},"modified":"2013-06-04T15:23:51","modified_gmt":"2013-06-04T21:23:51","slug":"idaho-continues-its-rural-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2013\/05\/23\/idaho-continues-its-rural-decline\/","title":{"rendered":"Idaho Continues Its Rural Population Decline"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_12014\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"The small town of Fairfield, Idaho\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/10\/Fairfield-wideshot.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12014\" title=\"Fairfield wideshot\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/10\/Fairfield-wideshot-300x132.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"132\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/10\/Fairfield-wideshot-300x132.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/10\/Fairfield-wideshot-620x273.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Molly Messick \/ StateImpact Idaho<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The small town of Fairfield, Idaho<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em><\/em>New census numbers released this week reinforce something we\u2019ve known for a while: Idaho continues to lose population in <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/04\/06\/rural-idaho-continues-to-shrink\/\" target=\"_blank\">rural communities<\/a>. In 1990, 59 percent of Idahoans lived in cities. Last year, that number was 69 percent.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cA third of the city population gain in 2012 came in Ada County, where the suburban community of Star posted a 3.4 percent increase. Coupled with population growth rates of 3.3 percent in Meridian and 2.9 percent in Eagle, those three cities accounted for nearly 3,400 of a 10,500-population increase posted by Idaho\u2019s cities.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Dubois in eastern Idaho recorded the largest population loss at 8.8 percent, dropping from 657 to 599. Salmon was the largest city to record a significant loss, falling 2.7 percent from 3,128 to 3,044.\u201d \u2013 Idaho Dept. of Labor<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2013\/05\/08\/bottom-rung-migration-by-the-numbers\/\">Bottom Rung: Migration By The Numbers<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/maps\/drivers-license-data-offers-clues-about-where-idahoans-are-moving\/\">Driver&#8217;s License Data Offers Clues About Where Idahoans Are Moving<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/maps\/drivers-license-data-offers-real-time-clues-about-who-is-moving-to-idaho\/\">Driver&#8217;s License Data Offers Real-Time Clues About Who Is Moving To Idaho<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/12\/20\/idahos-population-grew-slightly-faster-than-the-nation-last-year\/\">Idaho&#8217;s Population Grew Slightly Faster Than The Nation Last Year<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2013\/05\/Ladder-Robert-Couse-Baker.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/topic\/bottom-rung\/\">Bottom Rung: Living On Low Wages In Idaho<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>Dubois is the county seat of Clark County. The town used to employ 140 people at a potato processing plant. The Idahoan Foods plant closed in 2009, but some workers stuck around hoping for other work. According to the county clerk\u2019s office, the drop in population in 2012 reflects those workers deciding to move away for better work prospects.<\/p>\n<p>Kerri Ellis works on economic development in Dubois. She says that since the plant closed, at least five other businesses have shuttered. A migrant worker housing project has lost residents, and so the owners are preparing to sell. Ellis says some people tried looking for work in nearby Idaho Falls or Rexburg, but the commute from Dubois became too costly.<\/p>\n<p>Ellis says the town has been trying to attract new businesses. But with a shrinking young educated workforce, the town is a hard sell for higher paying jobs. Ellis says students who graduate high school usually move away for <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2013\/05\/08\/bottom-rung-migration-by-the-numbers\/\" target=\"_blank\">college \u2013 and then don\u2019t return<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New census numbers released this week reinforce something we\u2019ve known for a while: Idaho continues to lose population in rural communities. In 1990, 59 percent of Idahoans lived in cities. Last year, that number was 69 percent. \u201cA third of the city population gain in 2012 came in Ada County, where the suburban community of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":12014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[164,107],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17650"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17650"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17655,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17650\/revisions\/17655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}