Baker City is known as the “Queen City of the Mines” at the turn of the 20th century; it was the first town established along the Oregon Trail in northeastern Oregon. As more and more people are crowding to Oregon, Oregon’s cities proved to be a hotspot for people to relocate to, but Baker City isn’t proving to be so popular.
There aren’t many places in Oregon that are losing inhabitants, but the most significant decrease in the state was found in Baker City. This city lost 0.7% of its residents, with the residents seeking out somewhere else to settle down.
Anaconda, Montana
While it might have one of the more exciting names in the US, Anaconda has seen its inhabitants decrease to fewer than 10,000. Anaconda may have once been a prominent city, but by 2000, the population had shrunk so much it was demoted to a town.
People are still fleeing Anaconda, with an environmental issue involving an arsenic spill leading residents to pack up and leave.
Clinton, Iowa
The small city of Clinton had 34,719 people back in the ‘70s, but today this figure is thought to be a little more than 25,000; this drop is the steepest this river town has experienced in 40 years.
Clinton isn’t the only city in Iowa dealing with a dwindling population, with Camanche, a much smaller town, following in as a close second.
Hot Springs, South Dakota
Many people are looking to move as near to main cities as possible, which means smaller, more provincial towns like Hot Springs in South Dakota are encountering a difficult season. There has been a dramatic shift in population numbers in Hot Springs since 2000, with the city feeling a decline of 10% in 2010 and an additional 5% in 2018.
The cause for the reduction in residents is quite apparent when you compare these figures to the rise in South Dakota’s major cities' population.
Warwick, Rhode Island
Rhode Island has always had a small population, but it made headlines in 2018 when it was reported there weren’t enough citizens to justify two House seats. An initiative to expand the state’s population began soon afterward, proposing a bill that grants new residents $10,000 in tax credits.
One of the cities worst afflicted by the drop in population was Warwick, which lost 2.2% of its inhabitants since 2010. For ten years, between 2000 and 2010, Warwick also lost another 3.7% of its population, with no recovery signs for this lonely city.