While population has declined in Eastern KY, region is seeing increases from immigration

Migration in Appalachia is much like an afternoon thunderstorm bringing torrents of rain to those very mountains.

Historically, people migrating into Eastern Kentucky have come in waves like the rain, said Chris Green, the director of the Loyal Jones Appalachian Center at Berea College.

“We have groups of people who roll in with the migration tides, if you will,” Green said. “And then many of those people drop and plant roots and become part of the ecosystem of there, so it’s this evolving, interconnected ecosystem.”

Concerns over population loss in Eastern Kentucky have persisted in recent decades as the region’s population declined along with local coal production in the last half century.

Population loss is an issue that plagues not just Eastern Kentucky but most of rural America. The results of the 2020 Census showed that, for the first time in history, the total U.S. rural population declined.

A University of New Hampshire analysis of the data showed that just over 33% of rural counties gained population in the 10 years leading up to the census. Over half of America’s rural counties gained population in the decade prior.

During that same period, the five Eastern Kentucky counties that make up the Big Sandy Area Development District — Floyd, Johnson, Magoffin, Martin and Pike counties — lost nearly 13,900 people, or 9% of the population.

Population projections released by the Kentucky State Data Center last year estimated that by 2050, those counties combined will lose over 50,000 people, or 36% of their 2020 population.

But inside the city limits of some of the region’s small towns, like Hazard and Pikeville, there’s been some population growth. Luke Glaser, Hazard city commissioner, credited that to there being jobs available in Hazard.

“Jobs are primary catalysts for people moving to an area and you know, jobs are happening in our industrial park, they’re happening next to the highways, and those are coming through Hazard,” Glaser said.

Population growth can also be spurred by immigration. Immigrants moving into Eastern Kentucky have made large impacts both inside and outside the region, Green said, pointing to the history of the Dawahare’s clothing stores.

The business was started in 1907 with Serur Frank Dawahare, a native of Syria, selling wares in coal camps before opening a store in Letcher County. Over a century, the family-owned business grew to include multiple locations across Eastern Kentucky and eventually multiple states before it declared bankruptcy in 2008.

The story of Lynch in Harlan County also exemplifies that, Green said. A booming coal town in the early 20th century that reached a peak population of 10,000 before declining to less than 800. Near its peak, the town had more than 30 nationalities and in 1921, nearly 60% of outgoing mail went to Europe.

But even as people left, many still consider the town and area home. Generations of Black residents maintain ties to Lynch through the Eastern Kentucky Social Club.

“Even though people have now moved out of their home is Lynch, Kentucky,” Green said. “It’s not some other place.”

Population declines also don’t show a small, but steady increase in diversity in the area. Just within the Big Sandy area, the Hispanic population increased by 500 people in the previous decade. By 2050, they’re projected to make up over 2% of the population. Similar increases are expected regionwide.

“It is a presence and a living presence,” Green said. “The same is true with people I’d say from the Near East, by which I mean people working with the medical field, and hence we have mosques in Eastern Kentucky now. These are people who are coming in and making homes and connecting and staying.”