Local News

Census Shows Population Loss for Montgomery County

Thu, 19 Aug 2021 16:26:41 CDT
Population report cards are out and for the most part the news from the Census Bureau isn’t what was hoped for. Montgomery County population dropped below the 30,000 to 28,288. That’s a loss of more than 1,800 people over the past ten years and a decline of six percent. Litchfield saw a loss of 4.8 percent with population falling by more than 300 to 6605., Hillsboro’s numbers fell 4.9% with a loss of more than 300 residents to drop to 5902. Nokomis saw a decline of 5.1 percent with a loss of over 100 residents to drop to 2142. Raymond saw population fall below the one-thousand mark with a loss of 57 people to 949. That represents a decline of 5.7 percent. Witt received word that population dropped from over 900 to 785, a decline of 13.1 percent. A couple of towns went against the trends.... Taylor Springs saw a population boost of 4.9 percent. Population growth of 34 residents pushed the town over the 700 mark with 724 people. Coalton population also was on the positive side growing by 4.3 percent. The biggest blows from the Census count when you talk about percentages include Waggoner which saw its population drop by a third, down 32 percent falling by 85 residents to 181. Donnellson fell 27.1 percent losing 57 people to drop to 153. Irving numbers fell 24.6 percent with a loss of 122 to fall to 373 people. Ohlman and Harvel also saw population losses in the 20 percent range. From the start of the Census process, the likes of County Clerk and Recorder Sandy Leitheiser beat the drum for full participation to ensure Montgomery County received its fair share of federal dollars but concerns about an accurate count were expressed from day one with Covid 19 limiting the ability to achieve a successful door to door count.