Eastern Kentucky is running out of people — and time

By: James Branscome

Outlets: Kentucky Lantern

Published: April 13, 2026

Words: 1,755

Last Updated: 2 months, 2 weeks ago

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For most of the 20th century, the story of Eastern Kentucky’s population loss was a story about young people leaving. The mines mechanized. The jobs disappeared. Families packed up and headed north to Cincinnati, Dayton, Detroit and Akron in search of work. The Hillbilly Highway, as the route up U.S. 23 came to be called, ran thick with people who loved the mountains and left them anyway.

The new Census data tells a different story. …

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