For many people, gone are the days when they know their neighbors.

And in the Miss-Lou — if population trends projected by the U.S. Census Bureau are accurate — gone are the neighbors.

The incorporated areas of Natchez, Vidalia and Ferriday have lost a total of 4,183 in population over the last 20 years, approximately 15 percent of their combined population.

It is estimated that between the years of 2000 and 2006, all of Adams County — including Natchez — lost 1,714 residents.

Likewise, in that same period Concordia Parish lost 787 residents.

Some, former Adams County Supervisor Sammy Cauthen guessed, followed the different industries that were once here but have since left the area.

“When Armstrong (Tire) and International Paper shut down, some of their employees transferred to other work sites,” Cauthen said.

Ferriday Mayor Glen McGlothin agreed.

“A lot of them have moved off because the paper mill shut down,” he said.

Likewise, McGlothin said that that lack of jobs creates problems for the future workforce.

“Unfortunately, we have a lack of opportunity for young people here,” he said. “They go somewhere else because they don’t have that many opportunities here.”

But then there are the people who have simply moved, McGlothin said.

“Maybe the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence,” Cauthen said.

But Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland said that based on anecdotal evidence he would dispute the census bureau estimates for his city, and he would rather people wait for the 2010 census before drawing lasting conclusions about shrinking population.

“I can’t find it if people are moving out, because there are only five or six houses left (available) in Vidalia,” he said.

Cauthen said he believed that people are leaving Adams County for Vidalia.

“Some people are moving to Vidalia for the schools and because they believe that the taxes are less,” Cauthen said.

An examination of the numbers shows, however, that though people are still leaving the Miss-Lou, they are not exiting the unincorporated areas at the same rate as they are leaving the municipalities.

And Cauthen, Copeland and McGlothin all point to two patches of earth to explain the internal population shuffling: the lakes.

Until fairly recently, the land surrounding the lakes was dedicated to things like pecan groves, but now it has become valuable real estate, McGlothin said.

“If you go out to Lake Concordia and Lake St. John, you will find several people who used to live in Ferriday,” McGlothin said. “I can name at least 25 people I graduated with or went to school with who now live out at the lake.”

And while Copeland said he would rather see them in the city limits, he was OK with people moving to the lakes.

“I am glad we are not losing people as far as the parish is concerned,” he said.

When citizens leave the municipalities for other areas, there are some problems that they bring in as they exit.

“A lot of (the people who have moved to the lakes) still shop in Ferriday, but when the city is applying for grants and you lose a lot of population, you lose a lot of opportunity for grants,” McGlothin said.

The best way to reverse exit trends, at least from the greater Miss-Lou, is to bring more jobs to the area, Cauthen said.

For Ferriday, that means continuing work on revitalization of the town’s business district, McGlothin said. Copeland said it would mean continuing to work with the new businesses — such as a new hospital and tire recycling plant, as well as several small-to-moderate local businesses — that have already decided to locate in the city.

Of course, that means the population will have to understand that bringing in new business also takes time, Cauthen said.

“When you are industrial prospecting, things don’t happen overnight,” he said.