Places of Opportunity for Young Adults in the U.S.
The maps above show areas of the 48 contiguous states where young adult populations grew the most in the decade of the ‘90s and in the more recent period from 2000 to 2005. Only counties where the increase was 100 persons or more are shown. The dark and medium green areas are where growth in young adults was greatest in percentage terms. If it can be contended that young adults tend to gravitate to places where they can find good work or find places to start their careers in meaningful ways, then these areas can be considered “places of opportunity.” They also are places where younger adults move to as they advance in their work and careers. They are places with businesses and employers who are more prone to recognize educational credentials and to reward them. Areas with growing populations of young adults also tend to be ones with growing school-age populations. They are areas much more prone to have a large and growing work force as the baby boom populations increasingly leaves the work force in future years.
The maps below show areas of the U.S. where the young adult population fell (black areas) or grew (green areas) in both the ‘90s and in the last five years. Only six out of 56 of Montana’s counties had an increase in this population age group in the last five years. Only six counties in Wyoming had an increase while most counties in Colorado and Utah had increases. In the previous decade, only four counties in Montana and one in Wyoming had increases in the number of young adults. These past trends will continue to play out in both states in the future in a variety of ways – falling high-school age populations for the next ten or more years, contracting in-state populations for college-age adults, steadily increasing numbers of persons moving into retirement with smaller numbers of young adults to replace them as they leave, and a variety of labor force shortages and deficits in skilled and educated workers, as well as constraints in the number of workers for lesser-skilled jobs. These are all big challenges for a region in the midst of great change.
Source: Larry Swanson, O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West, U. of Montana
