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Pratt gained more than 500 residents from 2009 to 2010, according to the latest United States Census count, as reported in the Kansas 2010 Annual Summary of Vital Statistics, compiled by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
If the figures represented a full-time, permanent-resident increase, that would place Pratt among the fastest growing city in the state, Dr. William Wojciechowski, president of Pratt Community College, speculated.
Instead, the increase is probably due to a change in the way the Census Bureau enumerated college students in 2010. Historically, students have been counted on their parents’ questionnaires; however in 2010, students received their own packets. Instructions indicated they should list the residence where they live or stay most of the time, and should list their parents’ residence only if they lived and slept there most of the year.
Right now, PCC has 350 students living on campus and residence halls are 96 percent occupied. Wojciechowski estimated another 40 students live off campus in Pratt.
A high percentage of Pratt County residents who receive an associate degree from PCC will remain in the area, he said. Students who transfer to regional universities such as Fort Hays State University or Emporia State University, or the few who attend Pittsburg State University tend to return to Pratt to live and work.
Only a small percentage of students who transfer to Kansas State University or Kansas University will come back, Wojciechowski said, possibly because those schools are closer to metropolitan areas. He has been told there is a “large contingent” of Pratt graduates in the Kansas City area.
The energy and agricultural industries are doing well in Pratt and sales tax receipts reflect a strong local economy, City Manager Dave Howard said, but he doubts those factors resulted in much population increase.
Pratt — both the county and the city — have grown over the past five years, along with the state.
Most of the growth, however, results from natural increase (a positive relationship between births and deaths) and less from out-of-state people choosing to move to Kansas. During the 1990s, 68 percent of the increase in population was natural increase; in the first decade of the 21st century, more births than deaths accounted for 96 percent of the increase.
More Kansans are middle-aged and older, although the population of infants, children and adolescents through age 24 also grew. The number of people in the 25-44 age groups has dropped during the past 20 years.
“When young people grow up in rural communities most will want to move to bigger cities. They want the city lights,” Howard said. “What I hope will happen with that trend (the decline in numbers of young adults) is that they will start to appreciate what they grew up with and come back.”
An area must have jobs to retain its young workers — there are jobs here, he said. A combination of good jobs and recreation that appeals to that age group may be the keys to reversing the trend.
“If you can provide recreation people like and if the recreation can be tied into development, the community will have a better chance at attracting them,” Howard said.
Pratt gained more than 500 residents from 2009 to 2010, according to the latest United States Census count, as reported in the Kansas 2010 Annual Summary of Vital Statistics, compiled by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
If the figures represented a full-time, permanent-resident increase, that would place Pratt among the fastest growing city in the state, Dr. William Wojciechowski, president of Pratt Community College, speculated.
Instead, the increase is probably due to a change in the way the Census Bureau enumerated college students in 2010. Historically, students have been counted on their parents’ questionnaires; however in 2010, students received their own packets. Instructions indicated they should list the residence where they live or stay most of the time, and should list their parents’ residence only if they lived and slept there most of the year.
Right now, PCC has 350 students living on campus and residence halls are 96 percent occupied. Wojciechowski estimated another 40 students live off campus in Pratt.
A high percentage of Pratt County residents who receive an associate degree from PCC will remain in the area, he said. Students who transfer to regional universities such as Fort Hays State University or Emporia State University, or the few who attend Pittsburg State University tend to return to Pratt to live and work.
Only a small percentage of students who transfer to Kansas State University or Kansas University will come back, Wojciechowski said, possibly because those schools are closer to metropolitan areas. He has been told there is a “large contingent” of Pratt graduates in the Kansas City area.
The energy and agricultural industries are doing well in Pratt and sales tax receipts reflect a strong local economy, City Manager Dave Howard said, but he doubts those factors resulted in much population increase.
Pratt — both the county and the city — have grown over the past five years, along with the state.
Most of the growth, however, results from natural increase (a positive relationship between births and deaths) and less from out-of-state people choosing to move to Kansas. During the 1990s, 68 percent of the increase in population was natural increase; in the first decade of the 21st century, more births than deaths accounted for 96 percent of the increase.
More Kansans are middle-aged and older, although the population of infants, children and adolescents through age 24 also grew. The number of people in the 25-44 age groups has dropped during the past 20 years.
“When young people grow up in rural communities most will want to move to bigger cities. They want the city lights,” Howard said. “What I hope will happen with that trend (the decline in numbers of young adults) is that they will start to appreciate what they grew up with and come back.”
An area must have jobs to retain its young workers — there are jobs here, he said. A combination of good jobs and recreation that appeals to that age group may be the keys to reversing the trend.
“If you can provide recreation people like and if the recreation can be tied into development, the community will have a better chance at attracting them,” Howard said.
