Kansas' urban areas grow at expense of rural counties

By Judy Keen, USA TODAYPosted 3h 26m ago |

The population of Kansas grew 6.1% between 2000 and 2010, new Census data show, but the majority of its counties, most of them in rural areas, are shrinking.

Seventy-seven of the state's 105 counties lost residents while a 59.4% increase in Hispanics helped fuel population growth in urban areas. The state's Asian population grew 45% to 66,967.

"The positives are the increase in diversity and the increase in population," says Peter Haxton, coordinator of the State Data Center. "The negatives are that we're gaining population in urban and suburban counties at the expense of the rural counties … something that the state from the top down is trying to address."

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Republican Gov. Sam Brownback has proposed giving state income-tax waivers to people relocating from outside Kansas to any participating county that has experienced double-digit population loss over the past decade.

The state's population grew to 2,853,118. Hispanics made up about 11% of the population in 2010, up from 7% in 2000.

Wichita, the state's largest city, grew 11% to 382,368. Other growing cities are part of the Kansas City, Mo., metro area: Overland Park up 16% to 173,372; Olathe by 35% to 125,872.

The population of Finney County in southwest Kansas fell 9.2% to 36,776.

Finney County administrator Randy Partington says the drop reflects the loss of more than 2,000 jobs when a meatpacking plant was destroyed by fire in 2000. It was not rebuilt.

Things are looking up now, he says: A Tysons Foods plant, Sunflower Energy plant and smaller manufacturers provide steady jobs. "Our business climate is coming back," Partington says. "We have some businesses expanding and new businesses looking to come this way."

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What the county really needs, he says, is new housing to accommodate new residents.

Geary County in northeast Kansas is the state's fastest growing. It grew 23% to34,362 in 2010

Connie Hall, director of the Geary County Convention & Visitors Bureau, says the relocation of the Army's 1st Infantry Division from Germany to Fort Riley in 2006 drove much of that growth.

"We have lots of new young families," Hall says, "and a lot more traffic than we used to have." The fort also attracts many visitors to the area, she says.

About 18,500 military personnel are based at the fort.

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