Ten States that are Losing Their Youth the Fastest

Taxes combined with cost of living, dying industries, and environmental factors have all caused massive loss of youth in American states.  MSNBC has a sad yet interesting article on which states are losing populations of those fifteen years old and younger.

Map of the causes of youth population decline in states, 2000-2010.

Taxes with high cost of living are the biggest driver of the loss children (really the parents who realize the state has created an anti-family system of taxes).  California, Maryland, Hawaii, and even business-friendly Virginia have all been losing their youth due to high personal income taxes. In Alaska, where the youth population declined by fifteen percent in the last ten years, has a growing energy industry is hurting because of the high cost of living despite not having a personal income or state sales tax.


The Rust Belt, the range of areas along the Great Lakes where heavy industry died, is commonly thought of when one considers the downfall of an industry.  There are other industries that are dying or just not growing.  Agriculture and manufacturing are hurting in this Great Recession.  These two industries have caused a shrinking youth population in South Carolina and New Hampshire. 


New York and Rhode Island are suffering the lethal combination of both taxes with high cost of living and the downfall of local industries.


Louisiana is an unique case.  Hurricane Katrina in 2005 destroyed the southeast and caused a massive exodus of people and their children to Texas and other nearby states. 


What is geographically significant is that Central Interior states are lacking from the list.  It has been long feared that the Great Plains states of the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas were undergoing great depopulation, especially with youth.   It appears the Great Plains states are not the worst suffering in terms of youth depopulation.  Who knows, maybe things will start to turn around with these states having low personal income taxes (if at all) and the lowest unemployment in the country with the advancement of agricultural science industries.