Want to Entice New Residents? Offer Cash, for a Start.

After years of working to turn around the sinking population of Lincoln County, Kan., Kelly Gourley decided to try something new.A local foundation was dispensing cash grants to counties for relocation incentives — not to businesses, the normal target of such enticements, but to workers.Ms.Gourley, the director of economic development for the county, got the program running in 2023.

In the first year, she got five takers: all remote workers, some with children in tow.It felt like a victory, and maybe the start of something that could restore some of the vibrancy that longtime residents remembered from decades past.“Why put all our focus on businesses when we can just recruit people, go after families?” Ms.

Gourley said.“They’ll bring their jobs with them, which means income that is coming in from everywhere else into our county.”For the first time in a long time, the winds are at her back.

The Covid-19 pandemic shook up where people were willing to live and untethered some office workers from their corporate headquarters, while housing costs drove people away from large cities.Over the past five years, rural counties have gained population after losing it for decades, Census Bureau data show....