Federal lands counties are larger and more sparsely populated than are all nonmetro counties, but some counties have 20,000 to 50,000 people living in towns or small cities.
Federal lands counties, which are generally affected by Federal policies relating to land and the environment, as well as tourism activities, are an important policy type. There were 270 Federal lands counties--those with 30 percent or more of land area in Federal ownership in 1987. The amount of federally owned acreage in these counties ranged from 30 to 99 percent. The Federal lands group contained 12 percent of nonmetro counties, 11 percent of nonmetro jobs, and 11 percent of nonmetro earnings in 1989.
Western States accounted for 76 percent of Federal lands counties (fig. 15). Over half of nonmetro counties in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming are Federal lands counties. Small concentrations of counties are located in national forests in parts of Appalachia, the Ozarks, and in the northern parts of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
Federal lands counties were a little more likely to be totally rural than all-nonmetro counties (37 percent compared with 34 percent) and much more likely not to be adjacent to a metro area (74 percent compared with 57 percent). With a much larger land area (4,312 square miles in the average county), population density averaged only 15.4 persons per square mile, the lowest of any of the county types except farming. However, the population does not always live in rural parts of these counties. About 14 percent of the counties had between 20,000 and 50,000 people living in towns or small cities.
With the bulk of the counties located in the rapidly growing West, the population in Federal lands counties, on average, grew significantly faster during the 1980's than in the all-nonmetro counties, 9 percent versus 0.6 percent (table 8). Although the population in the 18 to 34 age group declined, the population in the 35 to 64 age group and the 65 and over age group grew by 27.7 percent and 32.7 percent, respectively. Gain in the elderly category reflects some overlap with the retirement-destination counties, although only 14 percent of the population in the average county was age 65 and over, the lowest for any of the policy types.
People living in the Federal lands counties fared slightly better economically than those in all nonmetro counties. The average poverty rate (15.8) was the lowest of all the types. Their median family income averaged $27,923 in l989, over $1,900 higher than the all-nonmetro figure, although per capita income of $13,807 and per capita earnings of $8,823 were similar to the all-nonmetro figures.
The strong growth in the service sector in the 1980's probably contributed to higher levels of family income. Nearly 70 percent of jobs in the average Federal lands county were in the services or government sectors, reflecting the recreational use and land management functions of the group. Of the net gain of slightly more than 430,000 new jobs, over 429,000 were in the services sector and about 63,000 in the government sector. Jobs in the farming and mining sectors declined. Earnings from services jobs grew about 17 percent compared with 13 percent for all- nonmetro counties, and the jobs themselves grew by 45.2 percent compared with 36.9 percent for all-nonmetro counties (fig. 16). Earnings and jobs in the government sector also grew more rapidly than they did in the all-nonmetro group.
Table 8--Federal lands counties: Selected characteristics
Federal All-
lands nonmetro
Item Unit counties counties
--------------------------- ------- ------- -------
Counties Number 270 2,276
Population, 1990 Thousands 5,425 50,898
Totally rural, 1993(1,2) Percent 37.0 34.0
Population density, 1990(3,4) Number 15.4 36.3
Population change, 1980-90(4) Percent 9.0 .6
Per capita income, 1989(4) Dollars 13,807 13,580
Counties with fast job growth,
1979-89(5) Percent 33.5 16.0
Job growth, 1979-89:(6) do. 19.4 10.6
Service job growth, 1979-89(6) do. 45.2 36.9
(1) No persons living in towns of 2,500 population or more.
(2) Percentage of counties in group.
(3) Persons per square mile.
(4) Unweighted county averages.
(5) Percentage of counties in group with job growth
greater than or equal to the average for U.S.
growing counties (22.29).
(6) Calculated from aggregated data.
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