Where America’s Population Is Growing — and Declining — the Fastest

American counties are state government extensions to serve more local needs, and the U.S. has a wide variety of local needs. There's such a diverse stretch of demographics, geography, and culture depending on where you are, and I think that's what makes counties so interesting. Trying to find the counties that have the most differences of any can give you a whole new look on our nation, so that's what I intend to find. There are so many different things to look at here, but I've found population growth and decline to show these differences, because it includes past, future, economy, and even geography in one way or another. So which county is the fastest growing in the U.S., and which is the fastest shrinking, and how do they compare? Before we get into the video, I wanted to quickly plug my merch store. I just released merch for my amazing 100,000 subscriber milestone, and it would mean a lot if you checked it out. We have 100k shirts, sweatshirts, and stickers, and if you don't want that, we have a classic collection with my personal favorite t-shirt, as well as polos and hats, and there's even more stuff on the website if you're interested. We tried to make it as cheap as possible, and it's just a cool way to support me and This is Kaufman County, Texas, and it's the fastest growing county in the entire U.S. First of all, it's located on the southeastern outskirts of Dallas, and it can explain America's growth pretty clearly. Obviously, you'll notice the county is located on the very edge of a metropolitan area, and most of the current development is suburban. It's currently in a perfect location where people want to move there to try and get the amenities of Dallas without dealing with the hustle and bustle of the big city. This means a lot of the major growth here is actually ex-urban. This is a form of development located technically outside of the suburban periphery, like this part of the county, but it benefits economically from the large city that it's near. People can move to these smaller towns and commute into Dallas, and this has happened at a significant rate. Between 2022 and 2023, the county gained 13,000 residents, the same amount as a decently sized city. This gives us a growth percentage of 7.6% just in a single year, which is pretty crazy. So that's the story of our fastest growing county, right? Well, let's take a step back and look at what put Coffman County in its current place, and how this growth has affected its residents. For this county, things start in the city of Coffman. The city of Coffman is the county seat, and it was founded in the 1840s as a fort, being named King's Fort at the time. It actually only became Coffman 12 years later, because the county was named Coffman County, and I guess naming things Coffman was all the rage in this area at that point. Anyway, the serious growth in this county began around the 1970s, when they really achieved the ex-urban status and began gaining residents from the Dallas Metro, which was booming at the time. Communities like Terrell, Coffman, and Kemp began gaining population. But not long after, real suburban growth hit the county in the northwest. Forney, Texas Ranch, Heartland, and Tulte all exploded in population, with the county gaining nearly 10,000 residents in the next 10 years. This continued on toward the turn of the century, and past 2000, the growth has been exponential. The county has gained 82,000 residents, and looking at the Forney area in 2000, compared to 2024, is just crazy. I think stuff like this is especially apparent near the interchange of State Route 557 and Interstate 20. Basically, this entire industrial park, as well as this commercial district, did not exist in 2000. Present day, there's a Buc-ee's, some hotels, fast food chains, and a hotel. We also see this kind of thing in Forney, where basically an entire city appeared in the last 20 years, with baseball fields, Walmart super centers, and miles of cul-de-sacs. This demographic shift has also brought high paying jobs and families. And the individual median household income is $89,000 per year, which ends up looking pretty crazy when you compare it to America's fastest shrinking county. Educationally, 86.3% of the adult population has a high school degree, and 25% has a college degree. So with this, you see the type of people that are moving to Coffman County. Whether there's a ton of culture in these developing areas is a question, since it's flat and suburban, but you could look at this and say life is good. But let's compare. This is Lassen County, California, and it's the fastest shrinking county in the US by population. Unlike Coffman County, Lassen is located in a very rural area, specifically the northwest part of the state, and like you'd expect, is a perfect example of where America is losing population. There are no major cities in the county, and mostly rural communities, despite its large size. The one community which is home to half of the county's population, though, is Susanville, which is also the county seat. This is an incredibly interesting city, with the population currently around 16,000 or lower. It used to be an important mining and logging town that boomed in the 1900s, up to around 7,000 residents. But as the economy shifted, the population stagnated from around 1970 to 2000. In a mission to revive the economy, the city allowed California to construct a state prison outside the town. The population boomed, gaining 86% between 1990 and 2000, and another 32% between 2010 and 2020. It's actually been very good for the city, but recently the population has stagnated again, and unfortunately, that's about it for the good news in Lassen County. Most other communities are tiny and declining. Johnstonville is losing population, Doyle is losing population, Westwood is losing a lot of population, and basically everywhere else is declining rapidly, leading to a population loss of 3.9% in just one year, nearly double that of the next worst county. There's a few major factors that contributed to this. First off, as I've stated before in relation to Susanville, a lot of these places thrived off the mining and logging industry in the 1900s. That used to be enough to keep them afloat, but more modern industries are required nowadays for economic purposes. Lassen County just doesn't have this. They barely have any farming, with a bit of irrigable land near Susanville and in the northwest corner, but it's mostly rugged, rocky land that isn't really fit for much. With that, you can mention the overall geography. Unlike Kauffman County, which is fit for development and farmable, Lassen County is dry and mountainous. Part of Lassen National Forest is located within the county, and the landscape becomes increasingly desert-y in the east, and an important thing to consider here is that it's also nowhere near any major metropolitan area. As I said, the land is rugged, it's not fit for development. You can consider Reno to be the closest, but it doesn't economically benefit off of it, and the next best is Sacramento, which is hours away. Statistically, it's worse than Kauffman County in nearly every way. High school graduation rate is 6% lower, and college degree rate is all the way down at 13.2%. And the big stats here are in the poverty. Remember how Kauffman County's poverty rate was 4.4%? Well, it's 17.1% in Lassen County. The median household income is $64,000, which actually isn't too bad, but it's over $20,000 less than Kauffman County. This shows you what population growth has to do with the other statistics in the county. People aren't going to move to a county that isn't good economically, and they are going to move to a county that is. So what does the future look like for both counties? Well, in Kauffman County, it couldn't be brighter for growth and economy, but whether that's a good thing or not is up to you. In 40 or 50 years, a large chunk of the county, including Terrell and Kauffman, will likely be suburbanized in the same way that Forney is. There will be continuous development, and areas like Kemp and Maybank will start to boom in population. But what will this do to the culture of somewhere like Kauffman, that's a more historic and culturally rural Texan town, than the new people moving in there would be? The city could lose its vibe and a lot of its beauty, and people living there might be forced out and move to an area that matches their lifestyle a bit better. For Lassen County, the future is murky at best. It absolutely has the opportunity to benefit off of tourism or something, since it has some beautiful areas. They have a lake there called Eagle Lake, and if it were possible, I think attracting people there could do wonders for the county. But you have to remember it's nowhere near any large metropolitan areas, so there's only so high it can go. This is just another example of how different counties can be. If you look at cities in either county, you can immediately tell the difference. They involve different people, lifestyles, and natural areas. That's the beauty of America. Thanks for watching. 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