Maine is growing. Can we take a moment to recognize how remarkable that is?

Generations of politicians, bureaucrats, business owners, community leaders and activists have served the state under the shadow of stagnant growth. Untold hours of debate and millions of dollars in campaign funds have been spent on the question of how to turn it around.

Now, suddenly, Maine’s population growth is booming, outpacing the national average for the first time in decades.

The reversal is the result of a once-in-a-century pandemic that led a lot of people to reconsider what they want out of life — playing right into Maine’s strengths. It’s time for us to take advantage.

UNEXPECTED GROWTH

As the Press Herald reported last week, Maine’s population as of July 1, 2022, stood at 1,385,340, an increase in the last decade of more than 56,000 people.

Most of that growth took place in the prior three years, when Maine has experienced a growth rate of twice the national average, alongside that of Sun Belt states such as Florida, Arizona and North Carolina.

While the growth was concentrated in York and Cumberland counties, more people moved here than moved away in every county — with Piscataquis, Lincoln and Oxford counties experiencing the largest increases as a percentage of population.

And although the influx of asylum seekers and other international migrants gets a lot of attention, they have made up less than 10% of the recent increase in population.

Most of the growth instead has come from people moving from other states, many of them searching for a safer, quieter, more community-centered place to live. There’s a reason Vermont and Maine are growing while nearby metro areas lose people.

CHANGE OF COURSE

It’s a strange place for Maine to find itself, even if policymakers have been chasing it for decades. Statewide growth has been below the national average since the 1990s. Mills closed at the same time Maine’s population was aging, so there were fewer babies being born and fewer opportunities to keep young people here, or to attract them to the state.

From 2010 to 2020, Maine’s population grew just 2.6% while the country as a whole grew 7.4%, making it uncertain whether the state would have enough people to fill its workforce and care for the older generation.

There’s been a lot of fighting over how to change those conditions, with Republicans in general citing Maine’s relatively high cost of doing business as the problem, while Democrats most often call for government investment in communities and the workforce.

No one saw the pandemic coming. But it should be noted that no one moved to Maine in the last few years because taxes or welfare were cut, or because businesses were allowed to pollute or mistreat workers. None of those things happened.

Instead, many Americans began to rethink a long workday with a soul-sucking commute. Many people can now work from anywhere, too, and are choosing to settle in Maine, where they can find tight-knit communities, a different pace and endless opportunities to enjoy the outdoors.

As the climate crisis brings high heat and more frequent storms to other parts of the country, people may continue to look to Maine for respite.

TAKING ADVANTAGE

As much as Mainers sometimes want things to stay the same, this growth is a positive development for the state. Communities either grow and allow their members to take advantage of opportunity and progress, or they wither and watch those opportunities go elsewhere — along with many of their residents.

So how do we take advantage of this moment? By reinforcing everything that makes Maine an attractive place — for both current and future residents. We need housing so that more people can live affordably in our great neighborhoods and close to work. We need to improve and expand our public areas — our parks, trails and downtowns. We need to manage growth so that we’re not overwhelmed by traffic, or see our towns pulled apart by sprawl.

We need to do better supporting people at the lower rungs of the economy, too. A community where every member is counted and cared for is better for everyone, regardless of income.

Maine doesn’t have year-round sun. Compared to other parts of the country, housing is expensive and taxes are high. But it has something else that keeps us here, and now it’s drawing others as well. It’s a rare opportunity to build a prosperous state while maintaining what makes us special. What are we going to do about it?

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