Final answer:
The commonality between Kentucky regions with population decline includes being rural areas dependent on agriculture and mining, experiencing high unemployment and poverty, and feeling the effects of urbanization as people migrate to more prosperous cities.
Step-by-step explanation:
The places in the Kentucky region with the most population decline have several factors in common. These areas are typically rural with economies based on agriculture and mining, like the ones found in the peripheral regions of Appalachia. In addition to the economic base, these regions often experience high unemployment, poverty, and difficult social conditions. Social and economic crises tend to reduce birth rates as people delay or decide against having children, while high death rates from health issues such as alcoholism and heart disease can further decrease population. The urban centers like Louisville and Lexington, in contrast, tend to attract migration and grow due to their roles as industrial and service centers. The core-periphery spatial relationship illustrates how urban cores serve as hubs of economic activity, drawing people from the peripheries, which can experience population decline as a result.
Urbanization and economic growth in nearby southern cities such as Atlanta and Charlotte have attracted northern migrants, thus, places with low population growth or decline are often left out of these waves of prosperity. The loss of population in places like the south of the United States and particularly in Eastern Kentucky represents the broader movement towards urban areas, leaving the rural peripheries with dwindling populations and declining socio-economic conditions.