The sharp decline in rural population has put Pennsylvania at the forefront of a national discourse on the viability of America’s small towns that have long been pillars of the country’s culture, writes Tim Craig for The Washington Post.

Nationwide, 81 percent of rural counties have recorded more deaths than births in the last four years. According to experts, the shrinking baby boomer population combined with smaller families that are moving elsewhere for jobs are behind the trend.

Pennsylvania has been especially affected due to job losses in both the manufacturing and energy industries that started in the 1980s. Then many young families were forced to relocate to Sun Belt states.

The Center for Rural Pennsylvania estimates that by 2050, the Keystone State will lose an additional six percent of its rural population. Some counties will likely experience double-digit population declines.

The population loss is now considered to be a crisis by state lawmakers and other leaders who are busy making plans on how to reverse this trend. They believe that neither the state nor the country can afford to lose small towns or the institutions that power them as they are driving certain sectors of the economy, such as agriculture.

Read more about the rural Pennsylvania population issue in The Washington Post.

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