COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – While the percentage of senior citizens in Branch County is growing, youth still rules.
A new Census Bureau survey for 2023 shows about 24% of the county’s population was under 18 years old, with 19% 65 plus. The youth percentage is the fifth highest among counties in the state.
In 1970, before Baby Boomers started reaching retirement age, only 10% of Branch County’s population was 65 plus, with 36% under 18.
In more than half of Michigan counties, children are less than 20% of the current population. State officials say the numbers are especially dire in the Upper Peninsula and the northern Lower Peninsula, which could have a big impact on the survival of the region’s remote, rural school districts.
State data shows in 2023, Michigan recorded 99,178 births, continuing a downward trend since the 1990s. It was the first time Michigan births had fallen below 100,000 since 1940, when the state’s population was about 5.2 million compared to 10.1 million now.
Michigan births peaked in 1957, when the state recorded 208,808 births.
Human trafficking in the remnants of the underground railroad from what I’ve heard. My son was trafficked and I’m tired of acting like I need to be quiet about it and that it is ok.