2023-10-30 10:01:20
NORTH DAKOTA — Nationwide, North Dakota has the highest number of ghost towns — communities with fewer than 10 residents — and in the coming years more and more communities in the Peace Garden State are likely to fall off the map, according to a
Research done by the online authority dedicated to helping people move used 2020 U.S. Census population estimates and found 39 ghosts towns within the U.S., of which eight reside in North Dakota, the most of any state in the country.
The North Dakota communities include:
Ruso (population: 3)Perth (population: 6)Hannah (population: 7)Kief (population: 7)Loraine (population: 8)Calio (population: 8)Loma (population: 9)Wales (population: 9)
The state is no stranger to tiny town stories. After 139 years of township, the
In its heyday, 457 people called the community home over 100 years ago.
The city’s last act? Placing a monument to the town “just to leave something to show that we were here,” the town’s last mayor Paul Christenson told The Grand Forks Herald in August 2022. Even following the dissolution, the few remaining life-long residents vowed never to leave.
Ruso, a community of three in McLean County, has been hanging on for years thanks to similar dedication from its residents.
Most of the towns in the recent study are scattered throughout the country’s center states, all the way from Texas up to North Dakota. North Dakota and South Dakota alone hold over 38% of total tiny towns with a combined 15 ghost towns.
Nationwide, three of the micro-communities have faded away into memory since 2010. South Park View, South Dakota, Hoot Owl, Oklahoma and Mustang, Texas, have lost all residents in recent years.
The future of small communities looks grim nationwide, according to the study, with 61% of towns with less than 10,000 residents seeing a population decline since 2010. Conversely, 82% of larger cities with greater than 100,000 people have seen populations increase over the same period.
Of the 39 ghost towns, 32 have declined in population since 2010, with just five seeing an increase in residents, the study said.
As far as towns with the most dramatic population declines, Calio, North Dakota, and Wales, North Dakota, both have lost more than 70% of its respective populations since 2010, according to the study. The towns rank ninth and tenth in the nation for most dramatic falloffs of any ghost town.
Better paying jobs in larger cities may be a contributing factor to the decline, the study said.
Shifting populations have been trending urban in North Dakota for a few years now. The 2020 U.S. Census estimated that the state’s population grew by 7.4%, however much of the growth has occurred in bigger communities like Fargo, Bismarck, Williston, Grand Forks, Dickinson and Minot.
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