Latest estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau indicate that many areas of northern and interior Maine continue to see a population slide, while southern and coastal areas are on the rise.
The population estimates between 2015 and 2016 show widespread declines across Aroostook County, with a loss of almost 800 people to just under 68,000.
“The demographic thing is not a new challenge, as you know,” says Robert Dorsey, who heads the Aroostook Partnership, created in 2003 to address economic problems following the closure of Loring Air Force Base.
Dorsey says the numbers could look much worse if the partnership hadn’t recognized the problems early on. But he says change will take more time.
“We probably have about 4,000 people now more than we were projected to have, had we not created the jobs and spearheaded some of the efforts that we did to save entities up here,” he says.
That includes, Dorsey says, saving the area’s rail infrastructure and pushing the government to keep an accounting arm of the Department of Defense open in the region.
Waldo, Cumberland, Lincoln and York County all showed growth. The town of Westbrook grew by about 2 percent, or 364 people.
Farther north, the biggest bright spot was Orono, which grew by 5 percent, adding 521 people to its rolls. However, most other towns polled in Penobscot County, including Bangor, lost population.
Only Cumberland and Androscoggin Counties show birth rates higher than the death rate.
