A similar fate awaits commercial property. The colleges throughout the region will also suffer from declining birth rates. In recent decades college towns have been insulated from the ebb and flow of the economy. By 2010, however, enrollments will decline substantially. Without doubt the decline in births will gradually drain the life out of the region.
Children are the key to holding society together.
Any village, town, county, culture, or other social unit is just one generation from extinction. Without more children, the aging social fabric will fray and finally fall apart. These synergisms build and sustain communities. The areas in which births have declined by more than half are destined to undergo profound changes within a generation. For some communities the changes will begin within a decade.