Sustainability, By The Numbers
From the article:
While the past few decades have seen some ebb and flow of population numbers, demographers see a clear trend in the years ahead for most Cape towns. The number of people is decreasing.
A study by the University of Massachusetts’ Donahue Institute in March 2015 makes some clear projections.
Harwich, which had a population of 12,243 in the 2010 census, is projected to have just over 12,000 by the year 2020. That number drops to 11,840 in 2025, and 11,679 by 2030. By the year 2035, the town’s population is predicted to be about 11,517, or nearly 6 percent lower than it was in 2010.
That change is fairly modest, compared to what’s predicted to happen in Chatham and Orleans, the two Massachusetts towns that regularly compete for the rights to claim the oldest average age for its citizens.
Chatham’s population of 6,125 recorded in 2010 dropped below 6,000 in the next five years, and is projected to reach 5,518 by 2020. If demographers are correct, that number will dip below 5,000 later in that decade, reaching about 4,637 by the year 2035. That would represent a decline of nearly 24.3 percent from 2010 numbers.
In Orleans, the decline is expected to be even more precipitous. Donahue Institute demographers predicted a drop from 5,890 year-round residents in 2020 to a projected 4,065 people in 2035, a nearly 31 percent drop.
Read article: Sustainability, By The Numbers
September 07, 2018
