This Illinois County Is Losing People Faster Than Anywhere in the U.S.

CAIRO, Ill.—In a nation where more than half of all counties saw population declines during the past decade, nowhere fared worse than Alexander County in far southern Illinois. Located at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, the county lost 36.4% of its residents between 2010 and 2020, Census Bureau data released this month shows. No other county lost more than 30%.

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Alexander County is an extreme example of the nation’s general growth pattern over the past decade: Big counties grew as small ones shrank. That was particularly true along the Lower Mississippi River, a swath of fertile land that runs from southeastern Missouri and Illinois downriver through Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana. The area has struggled for decades with unemployment, poverty, lower life expectancy and population loss.

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Once home to about 25,000 at its peak in 1940, Alexander County now has a population only slightly larger than when it was a key Civil War outpost. Cairo (pronounced KAY-ro) has been the epicenter of the county’s loss. A once bustling river port, the town has suffered for decades from the decline of shipping, coal mining, government and manufacturing jobs. During the past decade, the town alone shed almost 1,100 residents, a 39% population decline to its current 1,733 people. There is no grocery store or fast-food chains and the only nursing home, one of the town’s larger employers, closed last year. A decision by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2017 to close two World War II-era public housing complexes in Cairo resulted in the relocation of close to 200 families. Amid abandoned houses and the charred rubble of former businesses there still are two banks, a couple convenience stores, a car dealership and a liquor store in Cairo. A longtime barbecue joint serves as the town’s sole sit-down restaurant.

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Numerous other factors have also contributed to the county’s decline. In 2011, months of heavy rain and snowmelt led to some of the worst Mississippi River flooding in nearly a century, resulting in several hundred homes and businesses in the county being vacated. A state prison that employed about 300 workers closed the following year... Residents say the county has also been hurt by its proximity to Missouri and Kentucky, both lower-tax states than Illinois. There is no gas station here in Cairo, they say, because the Illinois gasoline tax is more than double the rate in Kentucky and more than triple what’s charged in Missouri.

Still, Cairo’s location at the fusion of two great rivers is again offering hope. A plan backed by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to spend $40 million in state money for a terminal and other port improvements in the town is offering the potential of about 500 union construction jobs in late 2022 or 2023. Preliminary engineering is under way and the state has released $4 million so far for what would be one of the largest investments in southern Illinois in decades. Roughly 80% of all inland barge traffic in the U.S. passes Cairo, according to Alexander-Cairo Port District. To the south of here, barges don’t need to pass through lock and dam structure as they do to the north, speeding transit to the Gulf of Mexico and allowing for larger and more efficient loads. The proposed 350-acre port, located near two major interstates and rail lines, would be able to handle up to 350,000 shipping containers a year and millions of tons of agricultural products. Once built, there would be jobs in operations as well as tax-and-fee income for local coffers.

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/this-illinois-county-is-losing-people-faster-than-anywhere-in-the-u-s-11629883801 (subscription)