Visas for the heartland

U.S. population growth is at an 80-year low. And the population of the United States is growing unevenly. In the 1990s, about two-thirds of counties grew more slowly than the nation as a whole. Today, 86 percent of counties have relatively slow population growth. Sixty-one million Americans live in counties whose population is stagnating or shrinking. Educational attainment in the fastest-shrinking counties is at the same level as the United States in 1978.

These statistics come from a new report by the Economic Innovation Group, a policy and advocacy organization that promotes economic dynamism. Written by Adam Ozimek, an economist at Moody’s Analytics, and Kenan Fikri and John Lettieri of EIG, the report argues that the existing economic divide between thriving and stagnating regions of the country will only be exacerbated by slowing population and labor force growth, and the aging of the population.

The report argues that population loss affects many things that aren’t immediately apparent, including housing markets and the financial health of local governments.

You can find a digital version of the report here, the full report here, and the executive summary here.