Download and Print a 1-page Fact Sheet on Shale Boomtowns (PDF)

Download and Print a 4-page Brochure on Shale Boomtown (PDF)

Shale Boomtown Trade-Offs

• The Upside - Employment and income up in high-drilling activity counties.
• The Downside - Higher rates of crime, sexually transmitted diseases, and traffic fatalities; increased housing costs and homelessness; boomtown communities ill-prepared for busts.

Employment

• Jobs related to gas drilling make up only 0.4% of all PA jobs • Employment gains concentrated in the six highdrilling counties • No real shale-related job gains elsewhere

Crime

• Violent crime increased by 17.7%, 130 more incidents of violent crime in high-drilling counties
• Violent crime was down in non-drilling counties
• Property crime increased by 10.8% in high-drilling counties
• Drug abuse increased by 48%, all other counties saw increases by only half that amount
• DUI offenses were up by 65% in high-drilling counties; up by 42% in rural non-drilling counties Sexually Transmitted Diseases
• All counties with drilling reported increases of 24% to 27% in the rate of chlamydia infection

Truck Accident Fatalities

• Fatal truck accidents spiked by 499% in Bradford County and 99% in Susquehanna County

Housing

• Rents increased between 7.6% and 12.3% in high-drilling counties
• Tioga County rents doubled or tripled
• Homelessness increased in Tioga and Greene counties
• Fourfold increase in homeless Head Start families in Tioga County
• Threefold increase in kids in foster care due to inadequate housing in Greene County Bust in Tioga County
• Number of new wells drilled fell by 55% from 2011 to 2012
• Below state unemployment rate 2010-11
• Since 2012, unemployment rate again above state average

Research by the Multi-State Shale Research Collaborative: Keystone Research Center & PA Budget and Policy Center, Fiscal Policy Institute – New York, Policy Matters Ohio, The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis – Virginia, West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy. http://www.multistateshale.org/research