Attracting more immigrants, more jobs and an increase in birth rate could go a long way to winning in the decades-long battle against population loss in southwestern Pennsylvania.

The Allegheny County Conference on Community Development’s Jim Futrell briefed Pittsburgh’s Mastermind Group on key indicators that show where and why people are leaving throughout the region.

“What we can do is balance domestic migration, which depends on job growth, bring in more immigrants and increase the birth rate. Those things together would increase the overall population of the region,” said Futrell, Vice President of Market Research and Analysis for the Conference.

The Allegheny Conference is a nonprofit organization based in Pittsburgh that brings together leaders to improve the economy and quality of life in 10 southwestern Pennsylvania counties.

Allegheny County’s population is relatively stable, but the counties around it—Armstrong, Fayette, Green, Indiana and Westmoreland have lost population, he said.

The ones that show the biggest rate of decrease, like Armstrong, Greene, Indiana and Lawrence, people moving away—rather than births and deaths—play a greater role, he said. The outmigration is sparked by a lack of jobs. In outlying counties where there was once robust manufacturing and other blue-collar jobs, fewer employment options often lead people to move elsewhere.