Wyoming experiences population drop for first time in 27 years

Wyoming’s population contracted for the first time in nearly three decades, likely because people left the state for work elsewhere, according to estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau and state.

In July, 585,501 people called the Cowboy State home, a decrease of 0.2 percent from July 2015, or 1,054 fewer Wyomingites.

While some individual counties have recently experienced population decreases, this is the first time that the state’s overall population has fallen since 1990. But there is some research showing the economy is stabilizing and Wyoming’s population may not significantly decline in future years.

Between January 2015 and the summer of 2016, about a third of the state’s mineral extraction jobs, or nearly 9,000 positions, had been lost, said Wenlin Liu, chief economist for the Wyoming Division of Economic Analysis.

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