📉 A deepening demographic crisis haunts rural Georgia, offering a stark picture of the widening divide between greater Atlanta and the rest of the state.
In less than 20 years, based on state Department of Public Health data, the number of Georgia counties reporting more deaths than births exploded from under 20 to nearly 100 of the state’s 159 counties.
This situation reflects a larger national trend starting around 2010, coinciding with the Great Recession. A February 2022 paper by Kenneth Johnson at the University of New Hampshire reported that, for the first time, rural America lost population between 2010 and 2020…