Geography and climate have played a significant role in U.S. population growth since 1970 (see here, here, here, and here). The figure below shows the correlation between county-level natural amenities and county population growth from 1970 – 2013 controlling for other factors including the population of the county in 1970, the average wage of the county in 1970 (a measure of labor productivity), the proportion of adults in the county with a bachelor’s degree or higher in 1970 and region of the country. The county-level natural amenities index is from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and scores the counties in the continental U.S. according to their climate and geographic features. The county with the worst score is Red Lake, MN and the county with the best score is Ventura, CA.
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As shown in the figure the slope of the best fit line is positive. The coefficient from the regression is also given at the bottom of the figure and is equal to 0.16, meaning a one point increase in the score increased population growth by 16 percentage points on average.
The effect of natural amenities on population growth is much larger than the effect of the proportion of adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher, which is another strong predictor of population growth at the metropolitan (MSA) and city level (see here, here, here, and here). The relationship between county population growth from 1970 – 2013 and human capital is depicted below.
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Again, the relationship is positive but the effect is smaller. The coefficient is 0.026 which means a 1 percentage point increase in the proportion of adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher in 1970 increased population growth by 2.6 percentage points on average.
An example using some specific counties can help us see the difference between the climate and education effects. In the table below the county where I grew up, Greene County, OH, is the baseline county. I also include five other urban counties from around the country: Charleston County, SC; Dallas County, TX; Eau Claire County, WI; San Diego County, CA; and Sedgwick County, TX.
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The first column lists the amenities score for each county. The highest score belongs to San Diego. The second column lists the difference between Green County’s score and the other counties, e.g. 9.78 – (-1.97) = 11.75 which is the difference between Greene County’s score and San Diego’s score. The third column is the difference column multiplied by the 0.16 coefficient from the natural amenity figure e.g. 11.75 x 0.16 = 188% in the San Diego row. What this means is that according to this model, if Greene County had San Diego’s climate and geography it would have grown by an additional 188 percentage points from 1970 – 2013 all else equal.
Finally, the last column is the actual population growth of the county from 1970 – 2013. As shown, San Diego County grew by 135% while Greene County only grew by 30% over this 43 year period. Improving Greene County’s climate to that of any of the other counties except for Eau Claire would have increased its population growth by a substantial yet realistic amount.
Table 2 below is similar to the natural amenities table above only it shows the different effects on Greene County’s population growth due to a change in the proportion of adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher.
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As shown in the first column, Greene County actually had the largest proportion of adults with bachelor’s degree or higher in 1970 – 14.7% – of the counties listed.
The third column shows how Greene County’s population growth would have changed if it had the same proportion of adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher as the other counties did in 1970. If Greene County had the proportion of Charleston (11.2%) instead of 14.7% in 1970, its population growth is predicted to have been 9 percentage points lower from 1970 – 2013, all else equal. All of the effects in the table are negative since all of the counties had a lower proportion than Greene and population education has a positive effect on population growth.
Several studies have demonstrated the positive impact of an educated population on overall city population growth – often through its impact on entrepreneurial activity – but as shown here the education effect tends to be swamped by geographic and climate features. What this means is that city officials in less desirable areas need to be bold in order to compensate for the poor geography and climate that are out of their control.
A highly educated population combined with a business environment that fosters innovation can create the conditions for city growth. Burdensome land-use regulations, lengthy, confusing permitting processes, and unpredictable rules coupled with inconsistent enforcement increase the costs of doing business and stifle entrepreneurship. When these harmful business-climate factors are coupled with a generally bad climate the result is something like Cleveland, OH.
The reality is that the tax and regulatory environments of declining manufacturing cities remain too similar to those of cities in the Sunbelt while their weather and geography differ dramatically, and not in a good way. Since only relative differences cause people and firms to relocate, the similarity across tax and regulatory environments ensures that weather and climate remain the primary drivers of population change.
To overcome the persistent disadvantage of geography and climate officials in cold-weather cities need to be aggressive in implementing reforms. Fiddling around the edges of tax and regulatory policy in a half-hearted attempt to attract educated people, entrepreneurs and large, high-skill employers is a waste of time and residents’ resources – Florida’s cities have nicer weather and they’re in a state with no income tax. Northern cities like Flint, Cleveland, and Milwaukee that simply match the tax and regulatory environment of Houston, San Diego, or Tampa have done nothing to differentiate themselves along those dimensions and still have far worse weather.
Location choices reveal that people are willing to put up with a lot of negatives to live in places with good weather. California has one of the worst tax and regulatory environments of any state in the country and terrible congestion problems yet its large cities continue to grow. A marginally better business environment is not going to overcome the allure of the sun and beaches.
While a better business environment that is attractive to high-skilled workers and encourages entrepreneurship is unlikely to completely close the gap between a place like San Diego and Dayton when it comes to being a nice place to live and work, it’s a start. And more importantly it’s the only option cities like Dayton, Buffalo, Cleveland, St. Louis and Detroit have.