Last week’s release of 2020 Census data confirms a troubling trend of Warren County losing population.

The county’s population has decreased by 3,228 people, or 7.7%, over the past 10 years with the city of Warren decreasing 3.1% from 9,710 to 9,404 residents. Warren County isn’t alone, of course.

The entire state lost 300,000 people at a time when the national population swelled by 13 million people.

None of that news is good. At the same time, that news isn’t unexpected. Our dwindling population isn’t just from people packing up and moving away for warmer locales or places where jobs are more plentiful — the fact that many families aren’t having as many children as they did decades ago is a big contributor to our shrinking population.

While the news isn’t good, it also isn’t a death knell for the county. Instead, in our view, the Census data should be is a wake-up call.

The continued dwindling of our population means we can’t govern ourselves the same ways we always have.

Just as our population is in an inexorable decline, the cost of handling the people’s business is on a steady increase — meaning we pay more to provide services for fewer people.

Warren County’s population loss is a fact. So, too, is the fact that we must right-size the way we provide social and public safety services for our current population levels, not the populations our county served during the baby boom of the mid-20th century.