The best years for many American towns are at in i trial agency inward the past. Their pinnacle years are behind them as well as all the hereafter seems to offering is to a greater extent than as well as to a greater extent than population decline.
Using historical census information Lyman Stone has been able to operate out inward which twelvemonth every U.S.A. county recorded its pinnacle population. With an ever increasing national population y'all would imagine that almost U.S.A. counties are every bit good nearly ever seeing an increment inward population. However for to a greater extent than than one-half of counties their pinnacle population is quondam inward the past.
In Where Has Population Fallen? Lyman Stone has created a number of interactive d3.js maps visualizing this population data, showing which counties are inward turn down as well as which are seeing population increases. He every bit good provides about interesting analysis of these trends (shrinking rural populations as well as suburbanization existence 2 probable culprits).
The Washington Post has every bit good been working alongside Lyman's cleaned upward census information to practise maps of this historical population data. In The places inward America that already convey their best days behind them the Post has created an animated map which shows the twelvemonth inward which each county reached its pinnacle population. It has every bit good created a static choropleth map of the same data.