The U.S. Census Bureau announced Tuesday that Hartville, Missouri, is the town closest to the middle of the nation.
Once every decade, following the census' results on where people are currently living, the bureau announces what the new population center is. The Associated Press reported that the "heart of America" has been in Missouri since 1980.
The Missouri Ozarks town of Hartville, in Wright County, is the closest to the population center, only about 15 miles away. According to the Census Bureau, the town has about 600 residents.
Pastor Melvin Moon, a Hartville City Council member, told AP that he hopes the designation will bring more tourists to enjoy the town's Civil War history, antique shops and outdoor activities.
"We are truly the heart of America," Moon said. "This small town represents what's great about America still: People are neighbors, people take time for each other and they help each other."
Sabrina Gilliland, a paralegal for the local prosecutor, said the town is the type of place where everybody knows each other. She said people stay for the "small town living."
WSILTV reported that Hartville, the county seat, will be holding a ceremony next spring to commemorate it as the 2020 population center, including the unveiling of a survey monument.
Hartville Mayor Rob Tucker told Kansas City's KSHB he was happy a town with such a big heart could be the "heart of America."
According to WSILTV, finding the U.S. population center helps surveyors and demographers see the direction the population is moving in and how fast it is going.
The first calculation of the population center was published in 1790, when the center was in Kent County, Maryland. Since then, the center has been steadily moving westward.
This also shows the largest southward shift in history, according to the Census Bureau's Historical Center of Population data.
"That pull came from the growth in the Southeast, in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas," said Deirdre Bishop, the Census Bureau's chief of geography.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
The U.S. population center, located after the 2010 census in Plato, Missouri, with a population of just 82 in the neighboring county, moved only 11.8 miles (19 kilometers) from 2010 to 2020.
This marks the second-smallest shift in distance in U.S. history. It is also the slowest shift in the last 100 years, beating the 13-mile move in the 1910-1920 census.
To calculate the center of the U.S., the Census Bureau figures out which spot would be "the balance point" if the 50 states were located on an imaginary, flat surface with weights of identical size—each representing the location of one person—placed on it.
Update 11/16/21, 5:41 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional comments.
