Which Wyoming County Has the Most Born-and-Bred Residents
It's no secret that Americans change their addresses more frequently than most countries. Even some of those stay near where they grew up for most of their lives. In Wyoming, what county would you expect to have the most born-and-bred residents?
Of course, if you're born-and-bred, then obviously you are still a resident of that state you grew up in. Perhaps some are still in the same county, or maybe even the same city. In terms of the counties in Wyoming that contain larger cities, you wouldn't necessarily expect them to be high up on the list since people often migrate to the bigger cities for work, school, and other reasons. Therefore you wouldn't necessarily expect Laramie, Albany, or Natrona counties, which contain Cheyenne, Laramie, and Casper respectively, to be home to the most born-and-bred residents.
In Wyoming, it turns out that percentage-wise, Fremont County is home to the most born-and-bred residents at nearly 53 percent of their population of 40,076. Washakie County has the second most with nearly 52 percent of their 8,129 residents. Taking third on the list was Converse county as almost 51 percent of their 13,997 population is originally from Wyoming.
The publication, Stacker, gave their take as to why Fremont County came out on top for born-and-bred residents in Wyoming:
Homesteaders began settling the area that would become Fremont County as early as the 1860s, taming the land alongside Shoshone and Arapaho tribes. Agriculture and the extraction of natural resources, including gold, uranium, and timber, have long been the leading industries in this semi-wild region. Although Fremont County established a large reservation for both Native tribes in the early 1900s, legal battles continue today regarding who has jurisdiction over some non-tribal lands that surround the county.
And there it is. Plenty of history of the region plays into why Fremont County has the highest percentage of born-and-bred residents.