Columbia County took a dip in overall population in 2018, according to newly released estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Although the official census only takes place once every 10 years, the agency releases an annual estimation census. The latest period measured stretches from July 1, 2017, to July 1, 2018.
The agency tabulates its yearly estimates by using a formula of population base, plus births, minus deaths, plus migration.
“The population estimates are used for federal funding allocations, as controls for major surveys including the Current Population Survey and the American Community Survey, for community development, to aid business planning, and as denominators for statistical rates,” said a Thursday Census Bureau population overview statement.
In Columbia County, the population fell by 163 residents. In 2017, the population estimate was 23,700, while in 2018 the figure was 23,537.
The dip continues the trend of population decrease since 2010. Over the eight-year span, the county’s numbers dropped by more than 1,000 residents.
On April 1, 2010, Columbia County’s population was 24,552. Although numbers did actually increase by roughly 100 residents from 2014 to 2015, the figures were back almost to square one again by 2016. From April 1, 2010, to July 1, 2018, the average annual population loss was 112.
In neighboring Lafayette County, the story is largely the same. Its numbers from 2017 to 2018 fell by 140 persons (6,822 to 6,682).
In 2010, the official census tabbed the county’s population at 7,645, but through July 1, 2018, the resident number had fallen by nearly 1,000, to 6,682. The figure virtually mirrors that of Columbia County. The differential between the two counties over that span was less than 50.
Although the population drop is not ideal, Lafayette and Columbia Counties’ numbers are tame compared to two regional neighbors.
From 2010 to 2018, Ouachita County and Union County each saw population dropoffs nearly 2.5 times greater in sheer numbers than their southwestern counterparts.
Population figures in Ouachita County in 2018 had fallen by 2,514 residents since the start of the decade (26,120 in 2010 compared to 23,606 in 2018) and down 218 year-to-year (23,824 to 23,606) in 2017 and 2018. That makes for an average yearly loss of around 279 residents.
Union County was virtually the same. From 2010 to 2018, it saw an estimated population loss of 2,513. But in the last three years, it lost residents at a greater clip.
In 2016, Union County’s population was 39,883. In 2018, it was 39,126 — a decrease of 757 total residents and an average yearly loss of 378. Ouachita County during that same span only decreased by 409 total residents, or a yearly average of 204.5.
The trend of rural, southern counties losing population is ongoing throughout the state. Even Miller County, which partially contains Texarkana, lost 292 residents from 2017 to 2018. The county, though, did increase by 130 residents since 2010.
So, who’s gaining population in Arkansas? The answer, which is not a difficult one, points directly to the state’s northwest corner. With its Fortune 500 Company base and the home of the state’s largest university, the small corner of the Natural State continues to distance itself, population-wise, from the rest of Arkansas.
Pulaski County, home of the state’s capital city and long thought of as the metropolitan center of the state, lost 936 residents from 2017 to 2018. But in the northwest corner, Benton County, the home to Bentonville and Rogers, is one of the top fastest-growing population bases in the country. Since 2010, it gained some 51,000 residents, or a 23-percent increase. That makes it 40th on the Census Bureau’s list of population growth per capita since the last official count.
As the central commerce home of Walmart and its controlling family’s $152-billion fortune, Benton County’s population rose by 6,100 from 2017 to 2018, bringing its overall total to over 272,000.
According to a Thursday Arkansas Democrat-Gazette report, three of the top five towns that added the most population between 2010 and 2018 were located in northeast Arkansas. They were Benton County, Crawford County, and Washington County. The others were east of Little Rock in Lonoke County and near Jonesboro in Craighead County.
Four of the fastest falling populations over the same period were located in the central Mississippi Delta region of Phillips, Lee, and Monroe Counties. Calhoun County, in southern-central Arkansas, was the only outlier.
Parts of Arkansas’ population may be shrinking, but its regional home is definitely not. According to the newly released census estimates, the southern and southwestern United States are the fastest growing region in the country by population.
Of top 10 per-capita counties in the country from 2017 to 2018, four are in Texas, three are in Florida, and one is in North Carolina, with all of their populations upped between 4.1% and 5.4% in a single year. The top two biggest growth spots were each located in North Dakota. The northern state is currently flush with oil and gas employment opportunities and saw growth in one year of 7.1 percent in MaKenzie County — tops in the nation — and 5.9 percent in another.
The top 20 list is more of the same. From ranks 11 through 20, Texas counties make the list another four times, and counties in Georgia and Utah each appear twice. The top 20 is rounded out with one appearance by a South Dakota county and one in Virginia.
A common thread with many of the top 100 fastest-growing counties in America indicates that they are mostly located in areas with an abundance of energy sector jobs and/or within states with traditionally conservative business practices of either low or no state income taxes. Counties in the state of Texas appear some 27 times on the top 100 list, while 15 Georgia counties, 11 Florida counties, eight counties among the Carolinas, and seven in Utah also appear.
Texas, Florida, and South Dakota contain no state income tax rate. The state of Washington, which also has a zero rate on earned income, appears three times.