Fastest Shrinking Missouri County Saw 15% Decline in a Decade

People come and people go and life sometimes means you need to move somewhere else. But, one Missouri county has seen the fastest decline of population in the state losing 15% of its residents in just a decade.

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I saw this interesting study shared by A-Z Animals and it made me wonder why one Missouri county is shrinking so quickly especially since it exists near one of the more vital areas of the state.

So what is the fastest shrinking state in Missouri?

According to A-Z Animals, it's DeKalb County.

Between 2010 and 2020, DeKalb County lost 15% of its residents. What's interesting (and a bit ironic) to me is that DeKalb County is located just north of Kansas City which is growing like crazy.

It's hard to put your finger on exactly why this part of Missouri is shrinking when the area to the south is growing so quickly. The sad fact is the decline in DeKalb County seems to be accelerating further. The A-Z Animals article says that they lost another 5.2% between 2019 and 2020 alone.

Note that Shelby County is also among the counties in Missouri losing the highest percentage of residents with a decline of 7% between 2010 and 2020 also. That's a bit depressing.

These are both counties where agriculture is king. Challenges in those fields which have not been made easier by the extreme drought conditions this year make me wonder if this trend of shrinking Missouri agricultural counties will only get worse moving forward.