Similarly, the economy that will have to support that population also mirrors the rest of the country. Its unemployment rate is low but economic growth is modest. “Iowa’s economy is two economies — we have a thriving metropolitan economy and then a nonmetropolitan economy that has not in aggregate recovered from the Great Recession — it’s losing jobs, it’s losing people, and we can see the consequences of this distress playing out.” said David Swenson, an associate scientist in Iowa State’s economics department. The state known for corn and soybeans, its gas station pizza and life-size butter cow conjures stereotypes, said Mary Swander, one of Iowa’s former poet laureates. Twenty years ago, Iowa had one of the oldest populations in the nation, and its senior population has grown rapidly since then.

Source: New York Times February 02, 2020 15:45 UTC