The One Minute Geographer: The Great Plains — A Sea of Population Loss

Counties in orange lost population between 2010 and 2020. Map from the US Census Bureau. 100-degree meridian added by the author. Location of the meridian is approximate.

Amazing: despite the nation’s population growth of 7.4% between 2010 and 2020, most (53%) of the country’s 3,143 counties LOST people.

Growth occurred in and around our 384 metropolitan areas. About 80% of those grew.

This is exactly what we saw on our Magical Meridian in the previous post where 46 of our 54 counties…