From 2010 to 2016, the four-county region experienced a decline or no change in population, except for Lafayette Township in McKean County.
The Center For Rural Pennsylvania shared the information in a recent DataGram that covers Pennsylvania’s municipal population change.
For Lafayette Township supervisor chairman John Ryan, he says there is likely more than meets the eye.
He said the men at the Federal Correctional Institution-McKean are technically residents, though not taxpaying ones, and that is what is likely bumping up the population numbers.
The U.S. Census Bureau says that Lafayette Township had 2,348 people estimated in 2010 and 2,392 in 2016. There are a total of 920 inmates at the federal prison and 259 inmates at the federal camp, according to FCI’s website.
“That’s the kicker. We’ve run into that with grants and with our own organization, PSATS (Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors),” Ryan said.
What’s more, Ryan said that FCI-McKean doesn’t contribute tax dollars, but it does pay water and sewer, he said.
“Our taxpaying population has remained pretty stable. We haven’t had any decline. We actually probably had a slight increase, but nothing that would tip the scales,” he said, adding that the township hasn’t experienced a housing boom in recent years.
All told, a total of 65 percent of rural counties across the United States lost population and 1,703 counties lost population or saw no change from 2010 to 2016, according to information compiled by The Center For Rural Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, 39 counties in rural Pennsylvania and five urban counties experienced population declines from 2010 to 2016, the agency stated. The Central For Rural Pennsylvania also reported that rural municipalities saw a 1.1 percent decline and urban municipalities experienced a 1.1 percent increase in population change from 2010 to 2016.
Overall, McKean County saw a 3.6 percent population decline; Potter County, -3.3 percent; Elk County, -4.6 percent; and Cameron County, -8 percent. The data comes from the 2016 population estimates, U.S. Census Bureau.
Jonathan Johnson, senior policy analyst at the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, said he conducted a presentation on demographic trends in Elk and Cameron counties for Leadership Elk and Cameron in September.
“While there is more current data (2016) the trends haven’t changed. Additionally, the trends in Elk and Cameron are similar in Potter and McKean –– although there are some differences,” he said.
The Center For Rural Pennsylvania says that the total population change includes a residual, which represents the change in population that cannot be attributed to any specific demographic component, such as births, deaths and net migration.
