Energy in 1776

Plus some good news on kiddos in the Big Cities

It’s July 4th, so Happy Birthday America, and we’re going to keep it light and only semi-topical.

• our energy mix is different than it was 250 years ago

• a little known fact about hydro

• little kiddos are not exiting cities quite as much as before, and in some places, the kiddos are growing

• the best place for kiddo growth, tho, is no surprise

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Lotta wood to chop

In terms of energy consumption, we’ve come a long way since 1776:

EIA

Renewables were our primary source of energy for the first 100 years!

When the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, wood, a renewable energy source, was the largest source of energy in the United States . . . wood remained the largest U.S. energy source until the late 1800s, when coal consumption became more common . . .

Coal was the largest source of U.S. energy for about 65 years, from 1885 until 1950 . . . Since the 1960s, nearly all coal consumed in the United States has been for electricity generation.

Petroleum has been the most-consumed source of energy in the United States since 1950 . . .

Natural gas is the second-largest source of U.S. energy consumption, as it has been most years since it surpassed coal in 1958. Natural gas was once considered a waste byproduct of crude oil production but now has become a common energy source for heating and electricity generation.

It’s incredible that natural gas used to be considered just a waste byproduct of crude.

I did not know that.

But what I really want to know is what happened to all the whale blubber?

Also, a little known fact about hydro:

The first industrial use of hydropower to generate electricity in the United States was to power lamps at a chair factory in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1880. The world’s first hydroelectric power plant to sell electricity to the public opened on the Fox River near Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1882.

Grand Rapids, the birthplace of industrial-grade hyrdo.

The young ‘uns are coming back

Well, at least they’re not leaving quite as much.

Little-kid population is no longer shrinking in big cities, by quite as much:

EIG

At just a bare 0.2%, the net loss of 0-4 year olds for large urban counties, is in-line with the national average.

That’s not good, but it’s not as bad as before.¹

In NYC, where young ‘uns have been exiting en masse, the bleeding is also not as bad, and in one case, is even good:

While the rest of the boroughs continue to lose little kids (albeit not as quickly), the Bronx actually saw a small lift of kiddos.

Could be that’s Riverdale or Bronxville or one of those Bronx-lite quasi-burbs, but it still counts!

And there’s another surprise in the Northeast:

Suffolk County, Massachusetts, which includes the City of Boston, had perhaps the most surprising reversal last year. Its population of kids under five years old jumped 2.5 percent in 2024, a far higher growth rate than any other large urban county in the Northeast.

Boston (or maybe Cambridge) had a 2.5% baby bump!

That big cities are no longer hemorrhaging the future quite as much is a very good thing.

Look, it doesn’t seem likely that cities are ever going to be the greatest place for babymaking and family-rearing (because demand for density is heterogenous over time and space, and that’s ok), but they can be considerably less-bad.

Let there be no mistake, though, that suburbs are still where families go to thrive.

If you squint, you can see it:

Suburban counties are the only counties with a net-increase in little kids.

Make cities better. Don’t densify the ‘burbs.

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Other interesting reads

• EOs to boost nuclear. Just something to watch.

• FORD CEO says job losses from AI are here now. A collection of quotes about how AI is going to take jobs. I’m not buying it. Change jobs? Yes. Create new ones to replace the old ones? Yes.

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Previously, on Random Walk

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1. NYC sits atop the leaderboard of fastest-shrinking 0-4 yo populations

3 outta 4 of the largest counties losing kiddos. Not good.