Harvey County is expected to shrink in population, rural areas will continue to decline, and in 50 years, more than three-quarters of the state’s population will live in metropolitan areas. Those are the findings of a study by the Center for Economic Development and Business Research based out of Wichita State University. It projects an average growth rate of 0.3 percent per year, a decline from the 5.4 percent annual growth experienced between 1960 and 2010. “Kansas is expected to be pulling out of the period of population slowing that we’ve seen over the past few years,” Jonathan Norris, research economist for CEDBR, said. “This return to population growth is going to mean a couple of important things—one of which is that we’re expecting the Kansas labor market to be able to continue expanding and the Kansas economy continue to grow. Though we’re heading toward growth of the population overall, there remains the trend of increasing migration toward metropolitan and micropolitan areas.”
Source: Harvey County Now
