Friday, May 31 2013 11:03AM

Many rural areas are experiencing population declines as outward migration increases.

Rural counties across the United States are seeing their populations shrink and rural community development growth rates subside, as more residents migrate toward urban areas in search of employment, according to Amber Waves, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service.

John Cromartie, a Resource and Rural Economics Division geographer who analyzed the data, reports that the farther a county lies from an urban area, the more likely it is to be losing population or growing at a slower rate than before the recession.

Citing data from the U.S. Census Bureau, he notes that between April 2010 and July 2012, non-metro counties experienced a total population decline of 44,000 people, or a 0.09-percent drop. Between this period, the number of people migrating away from rural counties largely exceeded the number of new births and individuals migrating toward rural areas.

Outward migration may largely be the result of the spike in the rural unemployment rate, which is now higher than both the urban and national jobless rate. Other factors, including limited credit opportunities and stunted electrical, energy and broadband infrastructure may also inhibit job creation and growth in many rural regions, forcing many prospective workers to seek out jobs in urban locations. 

Many federal agencies are launching new projects to help spur job growth in rural regions and drive more Americans to these areas, but analysts are unsure whether the past two years of population declines in these locations will reverse themselves in the near future. 

For more information, check out this resource: Amber Waves