Results of the latest census showed that population in the Pine Bluff metropolitan area declined 13.7 percent between 2010 and 2020, the largest percentage drop in the country.
According to figures from the census bureau, Pine Bluff’s population on April 1, 2010 was estimated at 77,456. Ten years later, that number had dropped to 67,260.
A story in the New York Times Thursday attributed some of the decline to mechanization of agriculture, which reduced the need for some farm workers, and to foreign competition and outsourcing, which dealt blows to manufacturing. Also mentioned was the state takeover of two school districts and the high homicide rate.
Just over 50 percent of the population was female and Black or African-Americans made up 57.4 percent of the total population. Another 39.8 percent were white.
The population of Lincoln County in 2010 was estimated at 14,441 and in 2019 at 13,024, a decrease of 7.9 percent. Thirty-eight percent of the population was female, and persons identified as white made up 67.6 percent of the total population with Blacks and African-American’s accounting for another 30 percent.
Cleveland County’s population in 2010 was estimated at 8,692 and in 2019 at 7,956, a decline of 8.5 percent. Females accounted for 50.5 percent of the total population. Persons identified as white accounted for 86.3 percent of the total population while Blacks or African-Americans accounted for another 11.5 percent.
The 2010 population of Arkansas County was estimated at 19,007 while the population in 2019 was estimated at 17,486, a drop of 8-percent. Females made up 51.7 percent of the total population with persons who identified as white accounting for 71.8 percent of the total population. Blacks or African-Americans accounted for 25.1 percent.
Grant County’s 2010 population was estimated at 17,842 and in 2019 at 18,265, a 2.4 percent increase. Females made up just over 50-percent of the total population which was 94.7 percent white. Blacks or African-Americans accounted for 2.7 percent of the total population.
