About 11 people leave the Mid-South daily, which could lead to an economic downward spiral for generations that spreads far beyond Memphis’ city limits, if the region’s elected officials and civic leaders fail to unite to disrupt and reverse current population trends.
That sobering warning was delivered Thursday, Nov. 5, at the MidSouth Development District’s State of the Region Summit, where Executive Director Anna McQuiston said the planning and economic development organization’s six-county region lost 4,134 residents in 2025 alone.
“It’s not a trend line,” McQuiston said. “It’s not a footnote on a census report. It’s a crisis.”
And to illustrate just how devastating population loss can be, she reached back nearly 150 years to one of the darkest chapters in Memphis’ history.
In 1878, a yellow fever epidemic swept through Memphis, killing more than 5,000 people and driving tens of thousands from the city. Memphis lost its municipal charter the following year and recovery took decades.
“Nobody’s fleeing this time because of a fever. But make no mistake, people are leaving,” she said.
“Population loss is a disaster of its own kind,” she continued. “It just moves slower, so it’s easy to look away.”
A shrinking population, a growing opportunity
The implications of population decline extend well beyond the number of people living in the region. Population counts help determine how much federal and state funding is allocated to local communities for everything from schools and Head Start early childhood education programs to roads, healthcare, housing assistance and emergency services, McQuiston said.
As the next U.S. census approaches in 2030, continued population losses could leave local governments competing for a smaller share of those resources. With regional leaders eyeing the potential for as many as 100,000 new jobs in the next decade, the stakes could hardly be higher, and the economic consequences could compound.
“Every family that leaves takes a paycheck, a taxpayer, a church member, a little league coach, and a future customer with them,” McQuiston said.
Fewer residents mean fewer available workers. Employers struggling to find employees may look elsewhere, taking potential jobs and investment with them, which gives more families reasons to leave.
Still, the region’s economic outlook is hardly without promise.
According to a 2025 workforce forecast commissioned by the MidSouth Development District, the region has the potential in the next decade to attract as many as 100,000 additional jobs, an estimate that reflects a high-growth scenario — not a guarantee. Realizing that potential will require investments in workforce development, housing, transportation and infrastructure.
“These jobs will not come just because we want them, and if they do come, they’re not going to stay just because we’re nice,” McQuiston warned. “Jobs go where the people go, and people go where the life is good.”
That makes workforce development the starting point for addressing the region’s larger challenges, she argued. Good-paying jobs give families reasons to stay, help support housing demand and provide the economic foundation for transportation, infrastructure and neighborhood investment.
“Workforce isn’t just one of our issues,” McQuiston said. “It’s the key that opens the rest of the doors.”
Capturing that opportunity, she insisted, will require a level of collaboration the region has historically struggled to achieve: getting its many governments, businesses and institutions moving in the same direction.
Beyond city limits and state lines
The idea of regional cooperation isn’t entirely new to the Mid-South’s mayors. They already pick up the phone, share ideas and occasionally work together on issues that transcend city limits and state lines.
During the panel discussion, Memphis Mayor Paul Young, for example, recalled conversations with Southaven Mayor Darren Musselwhite about data centers, Olive Branch Mayor Ken Adams about water issues, and West Memphis Mayor Marco McClendon about economic development. Young also said he meets regularly with Shelby County Mayor Mickell Lowery.
“When you’re doing this work, I think it’s important that we think regionally,” Young said. “And we know that we compete as an economic unit, and we have to have those relationships.”
Lowery, who moderated the discussion, pointed to the region’s shared assets, such as world-class hospitals, the Memphis Grizzlies and the Frederick W. Smith International Airport, as examples of why those relationships matter.
“I ran on a model of One Shelby,” Lowery said, explaining his belief that communities are stronger when they work together. “As Shelby County does great, does better, so does the entire region.”
McClendon offered a practical example. Early in his tenure, he reached out to other mayors seeking advice on attracting businesses and retail development to West Memphis. Today, he routinely promotes downtown Memphis attractions when pitching prospective investors on his Arkansas city.
“I sell downtown Memphis,” McClendon said, highlighting that West Memphis is a quicker commute to downtown than some communities and cities further east. “We need Memphis to continue to grow.”
Still, the mayors acknowledged that regional thinking hasn’t always come naturally.
“For a long time, the word regionalism wasn’t used around here unless you looked at the six o’clock weather,” Bartlett Mayor David Parsons said.
Today, Parsons said, companies considering investments in the area are often evaluating the region as a whole, including its workforce, infrastructure and quality of life, instead of just looking at individual cities.
At the same time, local governments remain responsible for attracting investment and serving their own residents. The challenge is finding ways to advance those interests without undermining the broader region.
Southaven Mayor Darren Musselwhite recalled his city’s early development as a small residential community whose residents depended heavily on Memphis for jobs, shopping and other services.
“If there were no Memphis, there would never have been a Southaven,” Musselwhite said. “When something good happens in this area, we all benefit from that.”
Olive Branch Mayor Ken Adams similarly noted that residents of his community frequently work at major employers elsewhere in the metropolitan area, while new industrial projects across state lines create demand for housing in Mississippi.
The underlying message: A company may locate in one city, employ workers from another and generate economic activity throughout the region.
Young reinforced that point in his remarks following the summit.
“The reality is that we’re not competing with Memphis versus Bartlett or Memphis versus Southaven,” Young said. “It’s the Memphis metropolitan area versus other metropolitan areas all across the country.”
But turning that shared understanding into coordinated action won’t be easy.
Adams acknowledged that longstanding disagreements and territorial attitudes have sometimes hindered cooperation. Musselwhite was more explicit, arguing that political rivalries have too often interfered with efforts to address problems that affect everyone.
“We’ve got to get the politics out of the way, ’cause there’s nothing political about sewers,” Musselwhite said. “There’s nothing political about jobs.”
What residents can do
During the summit, McQuiston insisted that residents also have a role to play.
Her suggestions were surprisingly simple: Shop and dine in local downtowns, including downtown Memphis. Mentor a young person. Explore communities across the Mid-South. Fly out of Memphis’ Frederick W. Smith International Airport rather than driving to another city to catch a cheaper flight.
“Every time you drive to another airport to save $80, you are voting for fewer flights here,” she said.
She also encouraged residents to build relationships beyond their usual circles, even suggesting a dinner party with people from different communities, states or political backgrounds.
The point, she said, was to stop waiting for someone else to solve the region’s problems.
“None of the things on this list requires a grant,” McQuiston said. “None of it requires a vote. Every single thing on this list you can start this week.”
For a region losing residents while trying to position itself for economic growth, McQuiston argued that the difference between continued decline and renewed prosperity ultimately comes down to whether its people are willing to work together.
“We don’t need a miracle,” she said. “We just need each other.”
