Rural communities are not the only areas dying out. Researchers noted that 'exurban areas' which had seen an increase for decades on the outskirts of cities, have also started to decline for the first time.
Not all rural areas are suffering however. North Dakota, which is experiencing an oil boom, and other states with access to energy sources, have had a growth in population.
Parts of the industrial north east have had the biggest population decline, which could impact the economy as well as the politics of those states.
But U.S. rural areas aren't the only places losing population. Many of the world's cities are also shrinking. That trend is most visible in Europe (new and old) and in the United States. Here, we think of dying Rust Belt burgs like Detroit, Cleveland, and Youngstown. But overseas, it's pronounced in other areas. According to City Mayors, a think-tank devoted to boosting urban life and issues, more cities have shrunk in the last 50 years than have grown:
Negative growth trends are largely associated with cities in North America and Europe, where the number of shrinking cities has increased faster in the last 50 years than the number of expanding cities. In the United States alone, 39 cities have endured population loss.
In the case of cities in the developed world, the report notes that on average, 2.3 million people migrate into developed countries each year. This means that migration — both legal and illegal — accounts for approximately one-third of the urban growth in the developed world. Without migration, the urban population of the developed world would likely decline