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Ohio Loses Population

1 October 2009 7 Comments

The state of Ohio lost population overall for the first time in nearly a decade, according to a study by Community Research Partners.

statehouse_oh

90.3 WCPN in Cleveland reports that the state lost 35,000 residents. In-migration and birth rates were not able to offset the decline.

Experts believe the out-migration can be traced to job loss. Ohio has a tendency to lose residents during a recession, experts report.

Franklin County, home to Columbus, managed to avoid the decline and gained residents. Cleveland’s Cuyahoga County and Cincinnati’s Hamilton County both lost residents overall.

Popularity: 17% [?]

  • http://politicsandplace.blogspot.com paz

    “A decade years”?

    35,000 is a lot. I wonder how far away they’re going.

  • Andrew

    And where are they going?

    Florida’s population declined this year for this first time since WWII. So if people aren’t relocating to the Sun Belt, where are they headed?

  • schmange

    The study couldn’t say where people were going.

    I think people are still going to the Sun Belt in some cases. It’s more of just a general diaspora, if I had to guess. I mean a plant shuts down, they might transfer workers to Kentucky or Tennessee.

    People are fickle. California and Florida used to be the go-to places for Ohioans. Now those two states have terrible economies and people are going to Colorado and the Carolinas.

  • Sobac Retok

    Americans can and often do move where they wish. No reason not to explore a mobile society rather than starve in place.

  • Keith

    What they don’t tell you about Columbus is that the inner city is losing residents like other Ohio cities. We have over 5,000 vacant homes in our urban neighborhoods. Once you leave N High St, pretty much every other neighborhood east, west and south of downtown is in shambles. The neighborhood of Linden alone saw over 4,000 residents move out from 1990-2000 due to gang-related shootings and the generally high crime rate there. Gang members bringing their shootouts into peoples’ back yards and break ins resulting in the home owner being shot to death form the reality of a large portion of Columbus that city leaders and boosters would rather you pretend don’t exist; there are numerous other neighborhoods where you could interchangeably switch the name and the same serious problems exist *at least* on par with Cleveland and Cincinnati.

    There is little support to fix most of these areas up whether it’s residents or local government. This is a major problem here and locals’ insistence on sticking their head in the sand about these places’ very existence explains why there’s a dearth of up and coming neighborhoods in comparison to other cities where there really are great improvements in addition of city residents thanks to the transformation of blighted communities into healthy ones.

  • schmange

    Hey, if anyone’s interested, there’s a petition circulating on this issue.

    http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/3ccorridor

  • http://www.columbus-ite.com Keith

    Ha! Nice. It really, really is a major reason. You’ll always have people from Ohio who will leave for NYC, Chicago, or even LA no matter what you do; that’s a given. But, there are those that would have stayed if only we provided similar amenities. No rail save for Cleveland, and even though there hasn’t been a (real) extension in recent history they do have the first BRT corridor in the state (can’t complain about tons of investment even though it’s not rail) and Cincinnati is getting a streetcar (eventually). Problem is: this is 2010 and there’s a *lot* that needs to be done just to catch up to other cities.