PORTLAND (AP) – Enrollment at Maine public schools has fallen to around 190,000 students for the new school year, extending a decade-long decline that is expected to continue for several years to come.

In the past 10 years, the number of students in K-12 has fallen by more than 25,000 students – from 216,121 to about 190,000. Maine schools have more than 50,000 fewer students today than 30 years ago.

The shrinking student population can be blamed on the state’s demographics and low birth rate, said Maine Department of Education spokesman David Connerty-Marin. Maine has the nation’s oldest median age and eighth-lowest birth rate.

“There are a number of states with declining enrollments,” Connerty-Marin said. “Maine’s not unusual in that regard.”

The student count at Maine’s schools fell from about nearly 250,000 to under 220,000 between the early 1970s and the mid-1980s. The numbers then rebounded slowly into the mid-1990s, but have been on the decline ever since. It fell below 200,000 for the first time in fall of 2006.

This year’s precise enrollment won’t be known for several months, after local schools report their numbers to state officials.

School enrollment is projected to continue falling until at least 2012, when it is expected to dip to about 177,000, according to projections from the State Planning Office. It is then expected to grow slowly and top 184,000 in 2018.

The decline is particularly acute in Maine’s rural regions.

The Education Department has projected that all 16 Maine counties will see declining enrollment between 2005 and 2014. Three counties – Piscataquis, Franklin and Washington – are each expected to see declines of more than 20 percent in that period.

As the student numbers go down, communities are faced with the prospect of school closures. Elementary schools in Mercer and Smithfield, for instance, aren’t opening their doors this year. Instead, those pupils will attend school in Norridgewock, which is part of their school district.

“We’ve seen schools closing over the past years,” Connerty-Marin said. “And we’ll continue to see schools closing in some of these areas where they don’t have the numbers to provide the educational offerings in some schools or the financial ability to keep them open.”