Rural NC growth, economy are stalled, fading
Published March 29, 2015
Editorial by Fayetteville Observer, March 29, 2015.
Rich state, poor state. Growing state, stagnant state, shrinking state. North Carolina is all of that, depending on where you're standing.
Refreshed U.S. Census data released last week give us a big insight into the trends that are driving this state's economy.
Those are the areas of the state also showing the most robust job and wage growth. That's why people are flocking there from other parts of the state and across the country.
But about half of the state's 100 counties - mostly rural - have lost population since the 2010 census. The loss leader is Northampton County, which sits on the Virginia border, about 40 miles west of Elizabeth City. The county has lost 7 percent of its residents since 2010.
Cumberland County suffered a small loss in the last year, but it was statistically negligible - a drop of 181 residents. But the county's birth rate helped stop what actually was greater bleeding: The county had about 3,400 residents move out last year. Most likely departed because of cutbacks at Fort Bragg.
Not every county abutting the post has that problem. Moore grew more than 1.6 percent last year, adding about 1,500 residents. Harnett grew by 1.2 percent, adding about the same number. Since 2010, Harnett has the greatest sustained growth in the region: 10.5 percent.
Hoke County's fast-paced growth has slowed a bit, adding only 458 people, for a growth rate of just under 1 percent last year. But since 2010, Hoke rivals Harnett for growth leadership in the region, adding just a hair under 10 percent.
Why Hoke and Harnett and not Cumberland? For one, there's a preference among many families for a more rural lifestyle. But the big attraction is cost of living. It's way cheaper in those counties.
Other rural counties might grow, too, if they had jobs. They don't. That's the underlying story here: The state's efforts to rebuild our economy after the recession were a dramatic success in big cities and a dismal failure in small towns and farm country. The governor and General Assembly dropped old development programs and introduced new ones. So far, they're not working. A tuneup is in order.
March 29, 2015 at 1:29 pm
Richard L Bunce says:
The Democratic majority in the NC Legislature had over a century to put their programs in place that in recent decades left these Counties behind in favor of their power bases like Wake County. The new Republican majorities programs are just going into effect, such as the tax rate reductions. Could the FO editorial page actually wait for the results before declaring the plan a failure?
