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Originally Posted by jd3189
Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems that small town/ rural America is dying a slow death. With stuff like the opioid epidemic, economic decline, meth addiction, overall despair, and loss of community among other things due to decreased church or community involvement, it’s hard to think that things are really going well outside the major urban areas.
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Population decline outside of metropolitan areas is a phenomenon throughout the developed world. The factors may differ slightly from country to country but the emptying out of rural areas has been going on for a while. Young people leave after high school leaving these places with mostly middle aged and older.
As these cohorts start dying off population decline will be far more severe because there's practically no one of child bearing age to offset that. I suppose some urbanites will buy summer homes and/or retire in these places as money tied up in real estate will go a lot further in these depressed places.