by Stephen Simpson, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

August 13, 2021

Concern about 2020 U.S. Census results was high Thursday during the state Board of Apportionment meeting in Phillips County, where several officials and residents voiced worries about how the reported population drop would affect the state’s Delta region.

The raw census results released that afternoon were being processed by the state, Shelby Johnson, geographic information officer for the Arkansas Geographic Information Systems Office, told those at the hearing held at Phillips County Community College in Helena-West Helena.

“Unfortunately, in this decade, the pandemic has wreaked havoc on the delivery schedule on the census data,” he said.

Census results, which usually are delivered months earlier, will be used by the Board of Apportionment to redraw legislative districts. It has been using 2019 census data for projections and the information has uncovered a glaring trend.

“The rural areas are becoming less populated and the urban areas are becoming more populated,” Johnson said.

The 2019 estimates showed rural Phillips County had lost more than 4,000 people over the past decade, but the final 2020 census numbers might be even higher. The raw data released Thursday showed that Phillips County’s population dropped from 21,757 in 2010 to 16,568 in 2020, a 23.8% drop.

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