A recent study by an Iowa State University economist shows that although Iowa’s population is growing overall, populations in rural areas are declining as large cities grow.

In the last decade, Iowa’s population has grown by 2.8 percent and metropolitan areas in Iowa have grown by 9.1 percent, according to the study “2000-2009 Population Growth in the Midwest: Urban and Rural Dimensions” by Liesl Eathington, assistant scientist in the ISU department of economics. Rural populations, though, have declined by 2.4 percent.

The report found that Greater Des Moines grew at the third-highest rate in the Midwest, with an increase of 17 percent.

One trend among the states with declining rural populations is that they have economies based on agriculture.

“The fact that we have more of an agricultural base — and by definition, more rural space — means there’s already fewer job opportunities in those areas. Agricultural production requires less labor than it used to, and these ag-dependent areas are still adjusting to those changes,” Eathington said in a release.

In the report, Eathington predicted that reversing the trend in population growth is not something local governments will be able to do, but wrote that knowing the trends “may help policy-makers and planners in responding to the state’s changing demographic landscape.”