Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Don't believe what you've heard about brain drain: Rural America's been gaining young, smart adults

Sometimes it pays to look again at tired data with fresh eyes. That's what Ben Winchester, a research fellow at the University of Minnesota Extension Center for Community Vitality, did. And he found that over the last 20 years there has been an increase in the number of young adults in rural places in Minnesota, and now in a new report, across the Midwest. The report, "Continuing the Trend: The Brain Gain of Newcomers," is summarized in a story in the Daily Yonder which notes that Winchester disputes a lot of accepted wisdom about rural decline. An example: "It is true that the relative percentage of those living in rural places has declined. However, the actual number of people living in rural areas increased between 1970 and 2010 from 53.5 million to 59.5 million."

Another example: "While some counties lost population overall, they gained population in certain age cohorts, like those in the 30s." In that age group, two-thirds had bachelor's degrees. That's not a brain drain, but brain gain, writes Winchester. They said they came for simpler lives, safety, affordable housing, outdoor recreation, quality schools. Winchester writes that "the preference for living in smaller towns and rural places continued between 2000 and 2010," though the slowing pace of that migration could be explained by the downturn in the economy.

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