natural population change, defined as the number of births minus the number of deaths, and net migration. The key problem driving West Virginia’ s population loss is that deaths outnumber births in the state, as reported in a nearby figure. This is driven by the overall age distribution of the state’ s population, unsurprisingly.
The other component of population change— net migration— has improved considerably for West Virginia in recent years. As reported in the nearby figure, for the past five years West Virginia has seen more people move into the state than out of it. This figure does not differentiate between migrants coming from other U. S. states versus international migrants; however, the large majority of those moving into the Mountain State come from other states in the U. S. As of the most recent data, West Virginia observed nearly 7,000 residents moving in above the number moving out. While this was not enough to offset the natural population decline, it is a very encouraging sign.
Overall, encouraging the in-migration of younger workers can be an effective and relatively quick way to stem the state’ s population losses, improve labor force participation, increase population density, make West Virginia more attractive to potential
Components of Population Change
businesses and ultimately create a virtuous cycle in which good economic developments multiply. •
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