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Half of America’s Cities Are Depopulating. We Could Be Headed for a Ghost Town Era. (www.popularmechanics.com)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/science@lemmy.world
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Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

  • By studying population trends and forecasting models, researchers have come to believe that nearly 15,000 U.S. cities will face noticeable depopulation by 2100.
  • Populated areas of the cities in question could experience a decline of up to 44 percent.
  • Projections call for the biggest drops in city populations to occur in the Northeast and Midwest.
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[–] 12 points 4 months ago (3 children)

If it’s a shift from a labour-intensive agrarian economy, that’s to be expected. A similar thing happened in Iceland, and due to the small scale of the country, it is very noticeable. Some 2/3 of the population live in the greater capital area, and beyond that, the countryside is dotted with abandoned farmsteads slowly falling apart.

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  • [–] 13 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    This has nothing to do with the agrarian transition. These depopulating cities were created by the agrarian transition. They were where people went after they left the rural areas.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Yup, this is likely because large cities have become too expensive, and rural areas have been getting fiber rollouts. With WFH being a viable option for many people, they can live in the boonies where you can get a 1200sqft house for under $200k.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    It's more about regional populations movements. There is no vast movement of people from the cities to the countryside. Rural areas continue to drop in population just as they have for the last century. The rural areas have a higher cost of living when you include job prospects. People can only afford to bid up the housing costs in cities because the jobs pay better than in the sticks.

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