Avery and Mitchell are two North Carolina counties similar in many respects. New U.S. Census Bureau estimates show that between 2005 and 2009, for every one person who moved out of Avery County, two people moved in. But in Mitchell County, just to the south, five people moved out for every one who moved in. “Mitchell has suffered some big setbacks in the manufacturing economy, and they are still trying to recover from that,” said Rick Herndon, the executive director of the High Country Council of Governments, a regional planning agency. “Avery has predominantly had a tourism-based economy.”
The Census Bureau said its data on county-to-county moves within the U.S. from 2005 to 2009 were the first such statistics released since the 2000 census. Later this year, the Census Bureau plans to release information from the 2006-2010 American Community Survey that will include age, sex and ethnic information. It’s no surprise that the state’s larger urban counties led the way in raw migration numbers. While Avery County netted only around 1,100 people because of migration, Mecklenburg gained almost 16,000 and Wake gained 18,640 residents from other places. Guilford County had a net growth of about 2,400 people through migration, while Forsyth lagged, gaining only 202 people. But in neither Guilford nor Forsyth did the number of people moving in amount to more than 1.25 percent of the 2010 population.
Because of the lower population numbers in the smaller counties, the impact of migration can be greater there. In most of Northwest North Carolina, migration between 2005 and 2009 had a minimal effect on growth. Alleghany was an exception in the loss column, while Watauga was an exception in gains. The difference, Herndon said, is that counties that have traditionally relied on manufacturing have lost people, while gains occurred in counties where tourists flock and golf courses flourish. Nearly all the counties with net out-migration are classified by the N.C. Department of Commerce as Tier 1 counties, meaning they are the most economically distressed.
by
Wesley Young
(WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL)
4/24/12
