By Travis Crum, The Herald-Dispatch of Huntington
HUNTINGTON, W.Va.— Only 32 of West Virginia’s 232 incorporated cities and towns experienced population increases from 2010 to 2018, according to estimates released this month by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Despite being the state’s two most populated cities, Charleston and Huntington recorded losing residents for an eighth-straight year, a reflection of the state becoming one of the fastest-shrinking in the nation relative to population size.
Only a handful of municipalities saw gains above average and a majority experienced only modest increases or increases of fewer than a dozen people.
According to estimates, West Virginia ended 2010 with 1.85 million people. That number dropped to approximately 1.8 million people by 2018, a difference of nearly 48,300 people. …