With 2020 Census results coming in, the main takeaway for Graham County so far is a substantial population loss.
According to the numbers released in August, the county lost 9.4 percent of its population between April 1, 2010 and April 1, 2020. The number amounts to 814 residents lost during the decade since the last national census was conducted, with a population of 8,030 as of April 1, 2020.
Graham County Economic Development Director Sophia Paulos said she was expecting to see a population decline, but that it was more steep than she anticipated.
“What I think the big takeaway from this is, is that we knew this was an issue,” Paulos said. “We didn’t know it was quite that bad.”
Paulos said several factors played into the decline, including an aging population, a lack of broadband and a difficult housing market.
She also said the 2014 closure of the Stanley Furniture plant in Robbinsville had an effect, with more than 200 jobs leaving as the factory was shuttered.
“We have a much older population than average and unfortunately, we have seen a lot of people pass on,” Paulos said. “We’ve got older people passing on, but we don’t have younger people moving in – and then, we also have really limited housing – so for folks that want to move here, finding a place to stay is often a barrier to them doing that, so they move to a county close to here instead.”
Paulos also pointed to the lack of reliable internet in much of Graham County as a factor.
“Folks that are able to work from home – or even folks who are retired, but want access to that kind of technology – have chosen to live other places at times because of that limitation,” Paulos said. “I would say that this is all the result of some really hard challenges that hit the county over the last 5-10 years. Not so much recently, but I feel like the Stanley plant closing in 2014 really kind of closed the lid on five years of decline.”
She said that even with the challenges the county was facing as a result of population decline, county officials and community groups were working to improve the situation.
County Manager Jason Marino discussed some of the projects underway toward helping revitalize the county.
“We always want to try to improve how our county looks and the things that are around us; improve businesses,” Marino said. “If you look around and compare us even to some of the more rich counties – the counties that have more abundance in resources – we have some facilities that would rival those. We have a really nice transit building, a really nice 911 communications center, a really, really nice urgent care and a lot of options with the urgent care.”
Marino also talked about an upcoming housing development in Graham County with the Rural Development Authority.
“We’ve awarded the Moose Branch Subdivision Contract and we’re going to be doing a pre-construction meeting next week,” Marino said.
He said there would be a groundbreaking for the development in the near future.
“That’s part of those opportunities that’s going to help, having some options for housing,” Marino said.
The census data shows 5,212 housing units, plus 275 people living in group quarters in the county. The population per square mile was 27.5.
Although Paulos said that COVID-19 likely had some effect on the data, she emphasized that it wasn’t a huge factor overall.
“I think going forward, it increased our desirability as a location,” Paulos said. “We saw our tourism numbers skyrocket and the length of stay also went up.
“People feel safe here.”
Marino also mentioned the county’s early response to the pandemic as a reason for its low impact. Despite Graham County’s drop in population, neighboring counties universally reported population gains.
The highest of these was a nine percent population increase in Macon County, followed by seven percent in Jackson County, five percent in Cherokee, Clay and Haywood counties, and one percent in Swain County.
“Bryson City’s done a lot of work to become what it is,” Paulos said. “Murphy has done a lot of work to become who they are. That’s why we continue to support the work that our people are doing, because we know it works.”
Both Paulos and Marino emphasized that the county was expecting more data that would offer a more detailed insight into the state of the county.
“Like Sophia said, you have a lot of people who are doing a great job in this county and they’re not going to lift their heads up,” Marino said. “They’re going to continue to work hard and try to make it the best we can.”