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By Giulia Carbonaro
Senior Reporter
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Counties in rural America suffered the largest population declines between 2023 and 2024, data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows, as residents left for larger cities offering more job opportunities and higher wages.
A Realtor.com analysis of migration trends between July 1, 2023, and July 1, 2024, found that the U.S. counties that lost the most residents over that period were concentrated in the South, with five in Mississippi alone.
Why It Matters
During the pandemic, being able to work remotely allowed many Americans living and working in U.S. metropolises to return to their hometowns or move to smaller, cheaper towns across the country.
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The end of the health emergency marked a reversal of this short-lived trend, as companies pushed for employees to return to the office. Once again, small towns across rural America are losing residents to larger cities with more lively job markets.
Many towns are increasingly offering incentives for newcomers to move to the state, hoping to revitalize their shrinking communities.
What To Know
Yazoo County, Mississippi, experienced the largest population decline of all U.S. counties between July 1, 2023, and July 1, 2024, losing 6.4 percent of its residents.
According to Realtor.com, the county was once an agricultural hub in the Mississippi Delta, but it has steadily lost residents to bigger cities within the state.
Sunflower County, also in Mississippi, followed with a population decline of 3.8 percent during the same time frame. The county was once a thriving center for the Mississippi Delta's cotton industry, but its population has been consistently shrinking since 2020 as residents sought opportunities in bigger cities.
Both counties had unemployment rates as high as 5.6 percent by the end of last year, Realtor.com reported.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey, about 37 percent of American adults nationally are finding it difficult to cover typical expenses, and the situation is even worse in rural areas and the South.
Mississippi, at 49.5 percent, had the highest percentage of adults reporting difficulty affording basic needs. Alabama followed with 45.5 percent.
What People Are Saying
Hannah Jones, a senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com, said in a statement: "Rural areas have a hard time competing with larger cities that offer more job opportunities and higher wages to young residents and families."
She added: "All of the counties with the steepest population losses are geographically close and share similar economic challenges. People are increasingly searching for homes in urban hubs like Jackson, Mississippi; Memphis, Tennessee; and Mobile, Alabama."
Reginald Wells, a local real estate agent with the Agency Haus LLC, told Realtor.com: "A lot of people have moved out because there just isn't much happening here—no real job opportunities or economic growth. Most homes are being rented rather than sold. People inherit homes or move away and end up renting them out because they don't want to come back to live here."
What Happens Next
Demographic changes have significant consequences for cities and towns, both in terms of their economic well-being and their housing markets.
In places where residents are leaving, home values and prices are dropping. In Yazoo County, the median list price of a home is $171,156, and homes spend about 124 days on the market, according to Realtor.com—enough to be considered "stale."
In Sunflower County, the median list price is $165,000, and homes spend 93 days on the market.
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