Rural America is booming, but the population growth that’s boosting local economies is also putting a strain on everything from schools to housing and roads.
The influx — which started during the pandemic — has continued even as Covid restrictions have lifted. The latest government data released just last month points to a second year of increases in 2022 after years of declines.
The trend is sparking resentment as house prices in the top 10 rural counties that have seen the biggest population increases surging more than 40% over the past three years. Schools are overloaded and the shift is even impacting farmland prices.
“There’s a lot of resentment,” said Maggie Doherty, a writer and columnist who lives in Flathead County, Montana. “There’s bumper stickers that say ‘Montana’s full’ or ‘Don’t California my Montana.’”
The number of people living in non-metro areas outgrew the urban population for the first time in three decades in 2021, and the rural population expanded again last year. But growth wasn’t evenly distributed, with the top 10 counties with the largest population gains growing by an average 5%, according to Census data. That’s more than the national average of 0.4%.
Tech-savvy Californians who work from home are fleeing to cheaper states, while retirees and nature lovers are flocking to places like Montana. Many Midwesterners have now moved to the Sunbelt. And if house prices are any indication, that trend is continuing this year.
In some places, the influx of new residents is deepening political divides in an already polarized country. The migration has the potential to change voting patterns in both the places people are leaving and the ones they’re going to, adding an additional layer of unpredictability in battleground states like Georgia and North Carolina in the 2024 presidential…
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