# Rhode Island Records 0.3% Population Decline-Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 28, 2007, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rhode-island-records-0-3-population-decline-why/431431 "2007-12-28T02:18:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rhode-island-records-0-3-population-decline-why/431431/21 "2007-12-28T18:04:33Z")
A few years ago, Vermont was the state that was losing young, college-educated folks the fastest. Then they reinvented their economy based on alternative energy and other eco-friendly industries and the trend has changed. Perhaps RI also needs to try a new economic direction. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rhode-island-records-0-3-population-decline-why/431431/22 "2007-12-28T18:09:31Z")
[QUOTE=GIGObuster] I blame the fact that I became an American 15 years ago.. 🙂 But you are correct, I did reverse the ratio and El Salvador is the larger one. (The grumble grumble thing is that I did look it up, but I made the mistake of looking for sites that compared sizes, got a factoid one) [/QUOTE] Along the same lines, I won’t say that if you dropped RI into [LA county](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_County) you couldn’t find it, I can tell you that if you dropped it in the middle of San Bernardino County you would have trouble [finding it.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bernardino%2C_California) (LA County 4,752 square miles, San Bernardino County 20,105 square miles) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rhode-island-records-0-3-population-decline-why/431431/23 "2007-12-28T18:20:28Z")
All the folks dying in Peter Griffin-related [del]accidents[/del] incidents? ---
**Author:** ![cinehead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@cinehead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cinehead)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rhode-island-records-0-3-population-decline-why/431431/24 "2007-12-28T18:32:29Z")
The population decline began when Buddy Cianci went to jail. Coincidence? I think not. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rhode-island-records-0-3-population-decline-why/431431.md?page=1)