America’s fastest dying cities


Downtown Asheboro, NC

Not a list you’d like your city to be on.

Even before adjusting for inflation, workers in places like Asheboro, N.C., or Spanish Lake, Mo., saw median incomes decline over the last seven years. In the former, this is a result of job losses in the manufacturing and heavy industry sectors; in the latter, an inability to attract highly skilled workers has hampered annual salaries.

I grew up in Asheboro, NC, listed No. 4 on the list. Flickr photos tagged Asheboro.

Photo by Seth Gaines and used under Creative Commons license.