Read more.
The changing spatial distribution of population
The 1930’s mark a definite change in the spatial distribution trend of Nebraska’s population. Up to the 1930’s homesteaders were steadily moving west and filling up the rural areas of the state, with the center of population moving steadily westward. This presents a good opportunity to use quantative geographical methods to examine the state’s changing distribution of population. Two useful methods are the weighted means center and standard distance. Weighted means center is a two dimensional center of gravity of a set of differently weighted coordinate pairs. In essence it gives you a coordinate that is a center of gravity. In this case the weight is the county population and the coordinate pairs are the county centroids and the result is the center of gravity of population. In 1860 the weighted means center was located in western Cass County (fig. 3), reflecting the fact that the majority of the state’s population was in the southeastern part of the state near the Missouri River. As settlers begin moving to the western parts of the state, the weighted means center rapidly moves westward until 1890. From 1890 to 1900 the weighted means center stays in southwestern Polk County. This indicates that during the drought and depression of the 1890’s even though the total population still grew, the diffusion of settlers in the western part of the state stopped. After 1900 the weighted means center resumed its westward course until it reached its farthest point in 1930. After the 1930’s the weighted means center begins moving eastward and by 2000 it is in Eastern Polk County. This is evidence of the drastic decline in rural population and urban population growth due to the rural to urban migration that began during the dust bowl and depression in the 1930’s and continues to this day.
Using the standard distance in combination with the weighted means center gives a clear picture of how the spatial distribution of population in the state is changing. Standard distance is equal to a statistical standard deviation. It measures the concentration of population in the state. The higher the value, the more spread out the population is and the lower the more concentrated. In 1860 the standard distance for the state was .856 (fig. 4). This indicates that the state’s population was pretty concentrated. During the 1860’s, the states population was in fact concentrated in the southeastern part of the state. Between 1860 and 1940 the standard distance steadily increases as settlers move into the rural areas of the state. It reaches its highest level of 2.201 in 1940. Rural to urban migration causes the standard distance to drop to 1.973 as people move from rural areas to urban areas in eastern Nebraska and along I-80.
