Rural areas across the nation are seeing major dips in population growth and some Southeast Missouri counties are feeling the impact.
Some counties like Cape Girardeau County and Madison County saw growth of almost 2% from 2010 to 2012, but other more rural counties experienced significant decline. New Madrid County took the hardest hit. That county lost 2.5% of its population during the two years. Iron County trailed closely behind with a 2.4% decline.
Clyde Hawes is the Presiding Commissioner for New Madrid County. He equates some population decline with employment opportunities.
“When our young people apply for jobs, and actually there’s no jobs, they have to seek jobs some other place,” Hawes said.
Hawes says the county tries to keep up with losses, but it sometimes isn’t enough.
“This is an agricultural area primarily. There’s been a lot of movement from the farms to different cities. And we need industry in the area. And our county has an economic development person that’s always working in this direction. And the county is always looking for industry, but this doesn’t always happen,” Hawes said.
Hawes is hopeful New Madrid County can recover through new resources like the Three Rivers Community College expansion south of Sikeston.
“We’re in continuous search for industry,” Hawes said. “We’re trying to come up with programs to keep our graduating students here. We have a new college coming into the county. We feel like this will help.”
Nationwide one in three counties experienced a decline in population from 2010 to 2012, with rural areas experiencing most of the losses.
