“What Shall We Do?”: Confronting West Virginia’s Population Decline

West Virginia’s population has been shrinking. Quietly, steadily, and year after year, our state has watched more people move away than move in. Once home to nearly 2 million people, we’ve now slipped below 1.8 million — and the trend hasn’t reversed. The 2020 Census showed West Virginia losing nearly 60,000 people in just one decade. Since then, the numbers haven’t improved.

What’s causing it? The answers aren’t simple — but they are urgent.

Some leave seeking jobs that no longer exist in their hometowns. Others leave for opportunities their communities can’t provide: access to healthcare, better schools, stronger infrastructure, or simply something new. And with an aging population, we’re losing more residents to death than we are gaining through birth. It’s not just a problem — it’s a slow unraveling.

For a state with rich natural beauty, abundant resources, and a proud, tight-knit culture, this decline raises a serious question: What shall we do?

Do we invest more in our small towns and hope our young people stay? Do we make it easier to build homes, start businesses, and create new industries here? Do we tell our story differently — one of pride and potential, instead of loss and nostalgia?

Or will we keep watching quietly, as schools consolidate, towns empty, and a generation that once believed in West Virginia moves on?

There are efforts — scattered and sincere. Downtown revitalization projects in cities like Parkersburg, Morgantown, and Huntington. Broadband expansion. Investments in tourism. Some even point to remote workers moving in as a silver lining. But is it enough?

At some point, this becomes more than a numbers game. It becomes a test of whether we believe West Virginia still has a future worth fighting for.

So, West Virginia — from the mountains to the rivers, from the hollers to the downtowns — let’s ask ourselves: What shall we do?

And more importantly: What are we waiting for?

Contributor: Josh Hart,Huntington