(2011-02-22) Census Counties Dying

The latest UsCensus says that 1-in-4 counties are "dying", though it sounds like that just means experiencing more deaths than births in their communities, a phenomenon demographers call "natural decrease" which makes it sound like it ignores immigration/emigration, though maybe that's just mis-described. (Looking at the terms and data, the "natural" part does not include migration. The question is whether the 1-in-4 counties had a net loss in population, or just a "natural" decrease which might have been offset by migration.

• More importantly, if the label is just triggered by positive-vs-negative, then you'd expect more than 1-in-4 to have some amount of decrease, given stability of overall US population. As usual, a HuffPo piece that is painfully sloppy.

I think this phenomenon, if true, could be a good thing if it "encourages" more people to move to Urban Village-s and reduce Sprawl. But there has to be someplace affordable (and with job opportunity) for them to go. Maybe it's not about going far, but tightening up clusters?