The Southwestern Kentucky Economic Development Council shared a presentation at their meeting Monday that overviewed the past, present, and future development of its three-county region.
The presentation, which covered Christian, Trigg, and Todd Counties, came from a recent report by analytics company Lightcast through the Tennessee Valley Authority, which studied data from the past five years to predict the region’s growth through its labor markets.
Council Director Carter Hendricks says while all three counties have seen an impact from the pandemic, they are expected to see steady growth back to pre-pandemic numbers.
The report found Christian County’s population is expected to grow by around 4,500 over the next five years, putting the county on track to surpass 75,000 people. Hendricks adds one explanation for this is that the county has more millennials than other counties of similar size, something influenced by the presence of Ft. Campbell.
Trigg County is projected to show modest job growth over the next five years and violent crime and unemployment rates remain significantly low. Hendricks adds the county shows slight population loss, but while some numbers seem low or high, they are simply a prediction.
In available labor, Hendricks says there are just under 30,000 residents from the three-county region available to the workforce.
Hendricks adds two primary goals driving the council’s strategic efforts are to create 5,000 jobs and $1 billion in new capital investments.
As a whole, Christian and Trigg Counties are predicted to see growth in a number of economic categories within the next five years.
