It isn’t much, but when it’s your first projected population increase in over 15 years, you’ll take it.
City Manager Trey Cocking says Emporia enjoyed a small projected increase between 2020 and last year. Citing numbers from the US Census as listed by Sunflower State Journal, Cocking says the city population is at 24,105 — up 12 residents between 2020 and last year.
Besides industrial growth, Cocking also credited Emporia’s increase in retail options and robust event schedule as indicators of the city’s quality of life.
Emporia had almost 27,000 people in 2000 and stayed about 26,300 until Tyson laid off around 1,000 workers in 2007-2008. The 2009 population dipped to just over 25,000, and the population had been in slow decline since.
