Starke County’s population continues to decline. Ron Gifford with the Starke County Economic Development Foundation discussed the recently-released 2017 population estimates with the Hamlet Town Council last week. “We’re down 683 people since the 2010 census was taken,” he said. “Part of the reason for that is that deaths in the county are outnumbering births in the county in five of the last seven years. That’s certainly not a good trend. There’s 27 counties in Indiana, of the 92, the have a population between 15,000 and 30,000. Only one of those had a population increase between 2016 and 2017.”
Gifford added that Starke County’s population decrease is projected to continue over the coming decades. “We’re not in a horrible position on those numbers, but boy, some of the counties around us are really starting to see that. Pulaski, for instance, is projected to be down around 10,000 people by 2050. So that’s tough.” He noted that this particular area of Indiana is losing people dramatically.
