![This Illinois Town May Not Be Around For Much Longer](http://townsquare.media/site/784/files/2022/07/attachment-290625307_377263207648173_7184723314610862705_n.jpg?w=980&q=75)
This Illinois Town May Not Be Around For Much Longer
The Youtuber Nick Johnson is known for his videos about different states, cities, and towns in the US. Nick talks about the past and future of these spots in his videos. Over the last 2 years, this Youtuber has put a spotlight on two towns in Illinois that have been struggling when it comes to population. He even predicted that one might not be around in the future. While he may be right or wrong, it's interesting to look at these spots and smaller towns people haven't heard of.
Maybe if enough attention is given there is even a chance to help in some way. Today we are looking at Ridge Farm Illinois.
The "Town"
In the 2000 census, there were 912 people in the town of Ridge Farm Illinois. In the 2010 census, The population was 882. As of right now, the estimated population is 753. This small town is actually referred to as a village on Wikipedia. At one point in time, the population was in the thousands. In the video, Nick points out,
Ridge Farm’s population used to be several thousand people. But like tons of other tiny towns in this state, folks are leaving in big numbers. There’s two main reasons people are leaving this state - high taxes and a lack of jobs. It’s pretty easy to see why there aren’t any jobs down here - there’s really nothing around anymore these days and a commute to a decent paying job is out of the question for most people.
Sadly like most small towns, this one may not be around forever according to the video many small towns in the Midwest have the issues.
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The Video
In the opening Nick states,
For the drive, I headed down to the small town of Ridge Farm, population 753. It was a sunny day on the day after Thanksgiving in 2021. We’ll use RIdge Farm as an example to illustrate the trend happening in small town America.
There is another spot this Youtuber focuses on that is not as extreme regarding small cities or dwindling populations, but is still note-worthy. The other spot is Danville Illinois. This spot is much bigger and is not one that he claims will "disappear." In the video he states,
Today, Danville is the cheapest place you can live in the state of Illinois, where homes sell for, on average, $65,000. The median income here is around $40,000 for a family of four. Property taxes are a headache here, where many people pay $300 a month for an average home. In fact, Illinois residents overall pay the second highest property taxes in the nation.
While these videos have a sad premise, there is always time, and hope for small towns in America especially when attention is brought to it.
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