For the first time in fifty years, Trigg County’s population showed a decline over the previous decade according to the latest US Census results.
The data showed Trigg County with a 202 population of 14,061 which was a decrease of 338 people or 2.4-percent. The last time the Census showed a decrease for Trigg County was 1970 when 250 fewer people were counted compared to 1960.
Census estimates for Trigg County in 2018 showed a population of 14,643. That number still held steady at 14,651 according to 2019 estimates.
Both of those totals would have surpassed the high-water mark for the county of 14,489 residents in the 1880 Census. Trigg County showed a count of 14,208 in 1920 but the government purchases of land for Fort Campbell and the impoundment of land for Land Between the Lakes saw the population drop by nearly 40-percent by 1970. It has taken the county nearly a century to get back to the population totals enjoyed in the pre-purchase days of the government.
In terms of diversity, Trigg County is 90-percent White, 6.9-percent African-American, and 2.4-percent Hispanic.
81-percent of Trigg Countians own their home compared to the state rate of 67-percent. The median home value was $129,000 compared to the statewide average of $141,000.
82-percent of Trigg County households have a computer and 70-percent have broadband access. Both of those are well below state and national percentages.
While Trigg County’s 88-percent total of high school graduates is two percent higher than the state average and equal the national rate, only 16-percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher from a college — well below the state rate of 24-percent and the national rate of 32-percent.
Trigg County’s median household income of $50,536 is right at the state average and $12,000 below the national rate. 14.6-percent of Trigg Countians live in poverty which is two percent less than the state rate.
The US Census data only included the numbers for Trigg County and not for Cadiz or any other communities in the county.
