Forum 35's Art Melt

People stroll through Forum 35's Art Melt held in downtown Baton Rouge on Saturday, July 19, 2014. (Photo by Brianna Paciorka, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

There's good news and bad news on the population front for East Baton Rouge Parish. In one year, the parish garnered a slight gain in residents - 763 of them, making for a 0.2 percent population growth. The bad news is, a lot of people moved away.

U.S. Census Bureau data show most of the growth the parish experienced over the last year was attributable to births. There were 6,064 babies born, compared to 3,711 deaths.

But those babies were not drawn to East Baton Rouge Parish by the area's efforts to lure young professionals and other desirable demographics.

Moreover, while Orleans Parish had a positive net change in its domestic migration from 2013 to 2014, the number of residents who left East Baton Rouge Parish for another parish or state in one year was a startling 2,459.

It's worth nothing, however, that a lot of the work Baton Rouge has done to add jobs and lure young people to the Capital region might take a while to take hold. Additionally, the population estimates probably don't yet capture the impact of a budding residential movement and urban renewal downtown and in other neighborhoods, like Mid City.

The census bureau data looks at change from July 2013 to July 2014. It doesn't catch the second half of a 2014, which Downtown Development District Executive Director Davis Rhorer called a "transformative year" for downtown Baton Rouge.

NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune commenter dualfnyman suggested the area's lack of culture accounted for the number of people who left: "LSU is all they got," the commenter said.

Another commenter, Ninthwarder, suggested the migration numbers could turn around in coming years: "There is a national trend of increased urban habitation, even in old cities like New Orleans and Baton Rouge. i think The negative domestic migration in East Baton Rouge Parish is probably reversing as we speak."

Why do you think people are leaving East Baton Rouge Parish?