Hickory, NC News & Views | November 30, 2025 | Hickory Hound

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https://thehickoryhound.blogspot.com/2025/11/hickory-nc-news-views-november-30-2025.html

News and Views November 30, 2025

Title:

The Great Catawba Swap: How We Replaced Our Future with Two Groups Who Can’t Pay for It

Summary:

Catawba County’s 2000–2023 numbers expose the truth: we didn’t grow, we swapped. The nest-building 25–44 cohort is flat only because 7,700 working-age Hispanics replaced native families who fled. Non-Hispanic White children vanished by 8,300 (-25%); total minors barely fell because Hispanic kids surged 6,300. Add 12,800 retirees and the “growth” is complete. Strip those two recruited groups away and the county’s real population collapsed by ~15,000. Result: schools lose tax champions, gain higher needs, wages stay suppressed, and the historic middle disappears. Population up, foundation hollowed out. This isn’t progress. It’s replacement.

Cheat Sheet – Key Points: 

1. We lost 8,300 Non-Hispanic White kids — that’s three or four elementary schools gone.
2. The only reason 25–44 didn’t collapse is 7,700 working-age Hispanics replaced native families who left.
3. Retirees + Hispanics = 27,000 new people. That’s more than twice the total “growth.”
4. Hispanic child poverty looks ~30% on paper; school meal and SNAP data say 40-50%+ live on the edge.
5. Schools: same desks, swapped students — from 91% legacy kids to 72% and falling.
6. Tax base illusion: population up, but the households that used to fund everything are dying or moving away.
7. This isn’t organic diversity. It’s a replacement engineered by 30 years of policy choices.

Hashtag Cluster:

#CatawbaCounty, #DemographicSwap, #NestBuilderCrisis, #WhereDidTheKidsGo, #TaxBaseIllusion, #HickoryNC, #CatawbaCensus, #RetireeFlood, #LegacyFamiliesGone, #TheSwapIsReal, #HoundSpeaks, #SchoolCrisis, #PopulationReplacement