Baker County Population Analysis Paper

Baker County is a rural county located in Eastern Oregon. It’s total population size is around 16,000 people and is 3,000 square miles. A majority of the county’s land is considered farmland. Farming attributes to a large number of Baker County’s employment. Due to recessions and the advancement of technology we have seen fluctuations and shifts throughout Oregon and especially Baker County. These fluctuations and shifts are seen in population, employment, job industry’s, and housing. I analyzed data from Baker county and compared it to Oregon as a whole and even nationally.

Baker county population has decreased from 16,714 to 16,059 between 2000 and 2014. The percent change of the population that has occurred in Baker County from 2000 to 2014 is a decrease by 3.92 percent. A gradual decrease in population is seen from 2000 to 2005, with a decrease in total population of the county by 1181 people. Another population decrease is seen from 2009 to 2012, during the last recession.

The average age for Baker County’s population is 48 years of age, with a margin of error of +/- .8 years. Baker County’s average age of population is about ten years higher than Oregon’s rural county population age of, 38.9 years and a margin of error of +/- .2 years. The margin of error between Baker County and rural Oregon is so small, making it …show more content…
The recession caused employment opportunities to decrease, causing a decrease in population. This correlation can be made due to the fact that people need jobs to pay for goods and services, if those jobs aren’t available people are going to leave the area in search for work. The percent of teens not in school and not working is high in Baker County, this isn’t good for the county because these teenagers aren’t contributing to the community. They do not have money to return to the community and they are also not helping improve unemployment within the