If you want everyone in your community on the same page, they have to have the same information, and data visualization can help you with that.
Lets’ start with this chart from the Congressional Budget Office. It projects that due to a number of factors impacting “natural” population growth, total U.S. population growth will depend entirely on net immigration by 2040.
At the federal level, that means international immigration, and at the state and local level it can mean domestic and international immigration.
What does your local picture look like – not just the state rankings? And how many people in your community have ever seen it? Circulating this type of information among your economic development committees and at your outlook luncheons is a good start. The thing is, although those audiences are influential, they are not comprehensive. A widely shared reality means sharing widely.