Wow at the Delaware Co growth. Also glad to see Franklin gaining pop again, after last year’s unusual dip in the estimate. 
 

Census: Franklin County, central Ohio again leading state in growth

 

“Franklin County is growing again in population after a brief dip in 2021 - the only major metropolitan county in Ohio to see growth, according to the latest county census estimates released on Thursday.

 

And most of the counties surrounding Franklin, home to Columbus and the state capital, are growing even faster.

 

Franklin County's estimated 2022 population was 1,321,820. That's up from 2021, when it was estimated at 1,317,560, according to the census estimates.

Five of the six counties surrounding Franklin County all continued to grow, census estimates show, with Delaware County's population the highest at 226,296. Delaware County saw the largest total growth of any county in Ohio with only Union County having a higher growth percentage over the past year.“

 

https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2023/03/31/census-franklin-county-central-ohio-again-leading-state-in-growth/70063619007/

Something of note is that they also lowered 2021 estimates for the 2022 update versus the original 2021 numbers released last year. 

 

For example, in 2022 they estimated Franklin County's population at 1,321,414 for 2021, while this year they have the 2021 figure at 1,317,560. This seems to be the case for most counties, so they're saying that the dip was worse than originally estimated. And that doesn't just seem to be the case for Ohio counties, either. 

 

 

45 minutes ago, jonoh81 said:

Something of note is that they also lowered 2021 estimates for the 2022 update versus the original 2021 numbers released last year. 

 

For example, in 2022 they estimated Franklin County's population at 1,321,414 for 2021, while this year they have the 2021 figure at 1,317,560. This seems to be the case for most counties, so they're saying that the dip was worse than originally estimated. And that doesn't just seem to be the case for Ohio counties, either. 

 

 

What are the implications of this?  It seemed odd last year when that estimate came out.  It seems even more odd that they lowered it even more.

9 minutes ago, TH3BUDDHA said:

What are the implications of this?  It seemed odd last year when that estimate came out.  It seems even more odd that they lowered it even more.

 

Estimates are tricky. The Census clearly believes that Ohio is doing very poorly right now, and it's hard to argue against that.  I think the estimates are reflecting that, even for the places that typically see growth because estimates basically do a spread-the-loss kind of thing. I just think they're spreading the losses a little too much into areas that are seeing stronger growth than indicated. I said last year and I'll say it again now that come 2030, I think we'll find that the estimates this decade were too low for Columbus and the overall metro, and possibly for Ohio overall. 

 

Edited March 31, 20232 yr by jonoh81

39 minutes ago, jonoh81 said:

 

Estimates are tricky. The Census clearly believes that Ohio is doing very poorly right now, and it's hard to argue against that.  I think the estimates are reflecting that, even for the places that typically see growth because estimates basically do a spread-the-loss kind of thing. I just think they're spreading the losses a little too much into areas that are seeing stronger growth than indicated. I said last year and I'll say it again now that come 2030, I think we'll find that the estimates this decade were too low for Columbus and the overall metro, and possibly for Ohio overall. 

 

The 'spread the losses" thing does not consider thing like Intel so I agree that it might not be a best practice.

*I wonder how much the Covid-19 deaths played into this...with death rates higher and all? 

I do feel dread though when I think about the state as a whole though. I just hope at this point that the state can hold it's own(I was hoping we would get lucky and be able to hit the 12 million mark in 2030 but I doubt that now. 

Our urban area added about 200,000 2010 to 2020 and with Intel/etc. I don't see how we don't at least match that by 2030.

2 hours ago, Toddguy said:

The 'spread the losses" thing does not consider thing like Intel so I agree that it might not be a best practice.

*I wonder how much the Covid-19 deaths played into this...with death rates higher and all? 

I do feel dread though when I think about the state as a whole though. I just hope at this point that the state can hold it's own(I was hoping we would get lucky and be able to hit the 12 million mark in 2030 but I doubt that now. 

Our urban area added about 200,000 2010 to 2020 and with Intel/etc. I don't see how we don't at least match that by 2030.

 

More and more counties in the state and beyond are reaching natural growth reversals, where deaths are increasingly outnumbering births. And what younger people do exist aren't staying in rural counties that have no jobs or amenities. So if they're not heading to bigger cities like Columbus, they're leaving the state completely. A lot of these places also have little to no immigration to speak of, so it's a double demographic issue. Columbus has managed to buck those trends for the most part.

4 hours ago, Toddguy said:

The 'spread the losses" thing does not consider thing like Intel so I agree that it might not be a best practice.

*I wonder how much the Covid-19 deaths played into this...with death rates higher and all? 

I do feel dread though when I think about the state as a whole though. I just hope at this point that the state can hold it's own(I was hoping we would get lucky and be able to hit the 12 million mark in 2030 but I doubt that now. 

Our urban area added about 200,000 2010 to 2020 and with Intel/etc. I don't see how we don't at least match that by 2030.

 

I do think Ohio is facing an uphill battle here. While some are settling, I think big shifts are on the horizon if a recession takes root. The last major recession pushed the 3Cs quite far ahead of the tier 2 Ohio cities, but it also pushed the countries biggest cities to new levels. If that pattern holds the 3Cs will be fine but it will really begin taking its toll on the state. There is nothing showing that Millennials or Gen Z will go rural suddenly and they're still the most transient groups. The 3Cs can only do so much to plug the leak and while Columbus is doing great, I think Ohio is in trouble.

Edited March 31, 20232 yr by DevolsDance

I found this to be very informative. It's worth the 45 minutes.

 

 

3 minutes ago, Pablo said:

I found this to be very informative. It's worth the 45 minutes.

 

 

Can you summarize it/Cliff Note it?

 

*for others, I will of course listen to it.

Edited May 15, 20232 yr by Toddguy

Just now, Toddguy said:

Can you summarize it/Cliff Note it?

Columbus is growing, need more housing.

 

The demographic info is very interesting, especially about Linden, along Parsons and Northland. You should watch it - It'll give you insight into why we need more housing, something you rightly espouse. 

38 minutes ago, Pablo said:

Columbus is growing, need more housing.

 

The demographic info is very interesting, especially about Linden, along Parsons and Northland. You should watch it - It'll give you insight into why we need more housing, something you rightly espouse. 

I am about five minutes in.

 

*skip around 9.30 they show Harmony 
Tower and act like it is still possible *cries*

 

Ok I loved when he called out German Villains and "The Whale" lol my favorite part. I thought it was very insightful and worth the watch. Too bad he had to condense things though and skip parts-like how the far west/southwest side is the most diverse part of the county-he cut right off of that. And in a way showed class bias-the west side is "skippable" because nobody cares about westsiders. JMHO. Not blaming him-he had to cut somewhere. Just sayin'

Edited May 15, 20232 yr by Toddguy

Columbus' population increases – again – in latest Census numbers

 

Columbus' population increased in 2022, continuing a trend and keeping the city in the top 15 largest in the United States.

 

Columbus saw its population rise by about 5,000 people in 2022 to 907,971, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. 

Here's the new list of America's biggest cities, with their population estimates as of July 2022:

 

New York, 8,335,897

Los Angeles, 3,822,238

Chicago, 2,665,039

Houston, 2,302,878

Phoenix, 1,644,409

Philadelphia, 1,567,258

San Antonio, Texas, 1,472,909

San Diego, 1,381,162

Dallas, 1,299,544

Austin, Texas, 974,447

Jacksonville, 971,319

San Jose, California, 971,233

Fort Worth, Texas, 956,709

Columbus, Ohio, 907,971

Charlotte, N.C., 897,720

 

In terms of Midwest and southern peer cities, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Milwaukee and St. Louis all lost population.

38 minutes ago, VintageLife said:

Columbus' population increases – again – in latest Census numbers

 

Columbus' population increased in 2022, continuing a trend and keeping the city in the top 15 largest in the United States.

 

Columbus saw its population rise by about 5,000 people in 2022 to 907,971, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. 

Here's the new list of America's biggest cities, with their population estimates as of July 2022:

 

New York, 8,335,897

Los Angeles, 3,822,238

Chicago, 2,665,039

Houston, 2,302,878

Phoenix, 1,644,409

Philadelphia, 1,567,258

San Antonio, Texas, 1,472,909

San Diego, 1,381,162

Dallas, 1,299,544

Austin, Texas, 974,447

Jacksonville, 971,319

San Jose, California, 971,233

Fort Worth, Texas, 956,709

Columbus, Ohio, 907,971

Charlotte, N.C., 897,720

 

In terms of Midwest and southern peer cities, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Milwaukee and St. Louis all lost population.

Was surprised to hear Indianapolis lost population.  I know their pace has slowed relative to Columbus' but still didn't expect them to lose population.  Either way, Columbus still chugging along steadily!!

7 minutes ago, Gnoraa said:

Was surprised to hear Indianapolis lost population.  I know their pace has slowed relative to Columbus' but still didn't expect them to lose population.  Either way, Columbus still chugging along steadily!!

The article does points out that the 6th fastest growing city is Westfield Indiana, which is a suburb of Indianapolis. 

Edited May 23, 20232 yr by VintageLife

1 hour ago, VintageLife said:

The article does points out that the 6th fastest growing city is Westfield Indiana, which is a suburb of Indianapolis. 

 

Columbus seems to be pulling population from its suburbs while the opposite may be happening in Indy. If you look at the recently released census estimates for Ohio's cities and towns, most Columbus suburbs, which have been steadily growing for the last few years, have either leveled off or declined since 2020. There are a few exceptions, but most have populations are flat or down since 2020. 

1 hour ago, VintageLife said:

The article does points out that the 6th fastest growing city is Westfield Indiana, which is a suburb of Indianapolis. 

The Census Bureau is famous for having erroneous estimates. They estimated New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago all to have lost large numbers of population during the 2010 to 2020 period, only to find out they all gained notable amounts of population during the same period with the official 2020 census. I would take much of this with a grain of salt, for the complexities of the largest cities you need to go door to door.

1 hour ago, Gnoraa said:

Was surprised to hear Indianapolis lost population.  I know their pace has slowed relative to Columbus' but still didn't expect them to lose population.  Either way, Columbus still chugging along steadily!!

 

The city of Columbus grew faster (or, at all) compared to the city of Indianapolis but the 2022 Census does show Metro Indianapolis (+1.46%) did grow slightly faster than Metro Columbus (+1.06%).  Indianapolis was the second fastest growing large metro in 2022 behind Des Moines (+2.73%) while Columbus was third.

***Cross Posting from Business thread as it's population related.  Remove if not allowed.

 

Downtown Columbus slated for nearly $3 billion in development projects, report finds

 

Nearly $3 billion downtown Columbus projects are in the pipeline and $228 million worth of projects were finished last year.

 

21 projects under constructions downtown currently and 31 projects proposed.  16 completed in 2023.

 

The report also showed that population downtown grew 3% from 2022 to 2023.

 

There are currently 1,831 apartment units proposed for downtown Columbus, which doesn't include the 2,260 under construction currently or that have been recently completed.

 

A goal of 40,000 residents downtown by 2040 is in line with this construction rate.

^ The headline sounds positive. The growth projections for Columbus are almost staggering. Can anyone weigh in on whether they think there's enough being done to incentivize downtown and downtown adjacent residential vs. the status quo farmland-to-housing out in the exurbs? 

The housing shortage is equally bad all over town. It's a shame the west side got so run down because we really need that housing. And we are adding far more blue-collar jobs than white-collar so we need to keep that in mind. 

49 minutes ago, GCrites said:

The housing shortage is equally bad all over town. It's a shame the west side got so run down because we really need that housing. And we are adding far more blue-collar jobs than white-collar so we need to keep that in mind. 

 

Interesting. With that sort of demand it's going to be interesting to see how investment goes into Linden or other established-but-historically-struggling areas. I just would really hate to see all those little pastoral and woodsy communities in the hinterlands turn into tract housing and traffic nightmares. I've already seen that all play out in NJ, where the infrastructure could never handle the growth, and still hasn't.  

2 hours ago, surfohio said:

 

Interesting. With that sort of demand it's going to be interesting to see how investment goes into Linden or other established-but-historically-struggling areas. I just would really hate to see all those little pastoral and woodsy communities in the hinterlands turn into tract housing and traffic nightmares. I've already seen that all play out in NJ, where the infrastructure could never handle the growth, and still hasn't.  

 

Just an FYI, there is quite a bit of investment in Linden.  It's the westside neighborhoods (Hilltop, for example) that are in need as GCrites was alluding to.

24 minutes ago, ColDayMan said:

 

Just an FYI, there is quite a bit of investment in Linden.  It's the westside neighborhoods (Hilltop, for example) that are in need as GCrites was alluding to.

Yeah they seem to be doing a decent job in Linden and I’m sure it will start to pick up even more once more of the “desirable” areas start to fully fill in. 

I found this fascinating thanks to @jonoh81

 

Here's the general population for the area that encompassed the 1950 Columbus city boundary (40 square miles) by decade:

 

1950: 375,710

1960: 389,222 +13,512

1970: 348,808 -40,414

1980: 287,089 -61,719

1990: 268,265 -18,824

2000: 246,713 -21,552

2010: 234,582 -12,131

2020: 256,939 +22,357

 

What I find interesting is that the population density of the old city in 2020 is around 6,423 per square mile.  That's pretty good compared to other older cities with smaller land area (denser than St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Pittsburgh; just below Buffalo and Hartford): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population

 

Hopefully 2030 brings even more population to the old city to continue adding density.

On 9/28/2024 at 1:56 AM, ColDayMan said:

I found this fascinating thanks to @jonoh81

 

Here's the general population for the area that encompassed the 1950 Columbus city boundary by decade:

 

1950: 375,710

1960: 389,222 +13,512

1970: 348,808 -40,414

1980: 287,089 -61,719

1990: 268,265 -18,824

2000: 246,713 -21,552

2010: 234,582 -12,131

2020: 256,939 +22,357

 

What I find interesting is that the population density of the old city in 2020 is around 5,038 per square mile.  That's pretty good compared to other older cities with smaller land area (denser than St. Louis, just behind Pittsburgh): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population

 

Hopefully 2030 brings even more population to the old city to continue adding density.

I find it fascinating that Old/Original Columbus faced similar decline its peer cities like Cleveland and Cincinnati faced for decades. I also find it interesting how small of a population the old Columbus had, it was even smaller than Cincinnati at its peak, what was the size of the original area in Sq. Miles? Can anyone from Columbus explain to me why they felt the old boundaries saw decline while the new boundaries seemingly boomed? 

The City of Columbus was better able to expand infrastructure than most of the suburbs, which were all just small towns at the time. So suburban-style expansion happened within the city limits. Linden, Eastmoor and East High Schools all acted like suburban schools until busing happened and White Flight blasted off (later than in other cities) toward our "older" 1970s suburbs such as Gahanna, Reynoldsburg and Worthington. 

36 minutes ago, MyPhoneDead said:

I find it fascinating that Old/Original Columbus faced similar decline its peer cities like Cleveland and Cincinnati faced for decades. I also find it interesting how small of a population the old Columbus had, it was even smaller than Cincinnati at its peak, what was the size of the original area in Sq. Miles? Can anyone from Columbus explain to me why they felt the old boundaries saw decline while the new boundaries seemingly boomed? 

 

Most cities in the midwest/northeast saw these population declines which started around 1940 and ended around 1990-2000. In some cases, the declining population continues today. Call it white flight or suburbanization or whatever you want, but the fact is development patterns changed drastically after WWII to favor suburban areas. 

 

1 hour ago, MyPhoneDead said:

I find it fascinating that Old/Original Columbus faced similar decline its peer cities like Cleveland and Cincinnati faced for decades. I also find it interesting how small of a population the old Columbus had, it was even smaller than Cincinnati at its peak, what was the size of the original area in Sq. Miles? Can anyone from Columbus explain to me why they felt the old boundaries saw decline while the new boundaries seemingly boomed? 

 

The original 1950 Columbus city limits was around 40 square miles before annexation which is 35 square miles smaller than Cincinnati and Cleveland.  The old city declined like everywhere else in America, including fellow annexation-happy cities like Nashville and Indianapolis, both which saw 35% decreases from 1950 through 2010.  

 

No explanation needed.  It's America.

22 hours ago, MyPhoneDead said:

I find it fascinating that Old/Original Columbus faced similar decline its peer cities like Cleveland and Cincinnati faced for decades. I also find it interesting how small of a population the old Columbus had, it was even smaller than Cincinnati at its peak, what was the size of the original area in Sq. Miles? Can anyone from Columbus explain to me why they felt the old boundaries saw decline while the new boundaries seemingly boomed? 

 

It declined, but not nearly as much as the other two. Consider that the current core city of Cleveland and Cincinnati are essentially the same today as they were in 1950. Between 1950-2020, Columbus lost a net of 118,771. Cincinnati lost 219,481 and Cleveland lost 544,828. 

 

The size of Columbus in 1950 was approximately 40 square miles. If you compared a similarly-sized 70 square miles, the loss in Columbus would've been less than 100K net. 

 

The same processes that caused decline in most cities between 1950-2000 also affected Columbus- suburbanization, urban renewal and highway systems that demolished tons of buildings, white flight, etc. The difference in why it declined so much less is likely because of annexation. It kept a positive image of a growing city and allowed the city to maintain a lot of services by keeping tax income flowing. Between 1950-1960 alone, Columbus grew in area by over 51 square miles. 

Having a more diverse, stable economy certainly helped as well. Columbus was never a Rust Belt city.

 

In any case, annexation today is largely non-existent. The last 20 years, Columbus has added less than 1.5 square miles, and the city was the exact same size in 2023 as it was in 2010. 

 

 

Edited October 1, 2024Oct 1 by jonoh81

1 hour ago, jonoh81 said:

and the city was the exact same size in 2023 as it was in 2010. 

 

 

 

That cannot be true. Columbus still regularly annexes land. Nothing like the rates it used to, but Columbus is still grabbing subdivisions and apartment complexes at its borders or within township "holes" in the city. 

 

35 minutes ago, ink said:

 

That cannot be true. Columbus still regularly annexes land. Nothing like the rates it used to, but Columbus is still grabbing subdivisions and apartment complexes at its borders or within township "holes" in the city. 

 

Since the 1980s Columbus has basically had zero annexation. Yea there are areas that it still picks up, but  like the above post said, it’s been about 1.5 square miles. Either way Columbus is more dense than Cincinnati and almost as dense as Cleveland, so why does it really matter?? 

Yeah Columbus learned the hard way that those subdivisions with lots of 1/3 of an acre or more with houses under $400-500k are money losers as far as property tax collected vs. services provided so they are loath to annex them. Columbus realized that things they did in the past such as annex cheap houses on 5 acre lots covered in beat up cars are real bloodsuckers.

1 hour ago, ink said:

 

That cannot be true. Columbus still regularly annexes land. Nothing like the rates it used to, but Columbus is still grabbing subdivisions and apartment complexes at its borders or within township "holes" in the city. 

 

 

I got the numbers from the city's website, though I don't remember exactly where. In 2010, the area size was 227.2 square miles. In 2015, the area size had grown slightly to 228.4, but sometime between 2015-2020, there was a size decrease. I'm not sure from what exactly, but they sometimes happen. Regardless, the city's size was down to 225.9 in 2020. By 2023, it was back up to 227.2. 

Maybe de-annexing a toxic site.

According to the Columbus lists of annexations and detachments, 2185.6326 acres have been annexed and 102.117 acres have been detached 2015-present. About 3.25 square miles net gain over the last decade. 

 

https://opendata.columbus.gov/datasets/columbus::corporate-boundary-detachments/about

https://opendata.columbus.gov/datasets/columbus::corporate-boundary-annexations/about

 

 

Looks like mostly giving land near suburbs to those suburbs.

14 hours ago, Imwalle said:

According to the Columbus lists of annexations and detachments, 2185.6326 acres have been annexed and 102.117 acres have been detached 2015-present. About 3.25 square miles net gain over the last decade. 

 

https://opendata.columbus.gov/datasets/columbus::corporate-boundary-detachments/about

https://opendata.columbus.gov/datasets/columbus::corporate-boundary-annexations/about

 

 

 

It would be interesting to see how these annexations and detachments have impacted the population figures. In theory, Columbus could have grown in size, but lost population due to the detachments. 

Most of them in Reynoldsburg and Gahanna seem to be commercial properties. 

1 hour ago, cbussoccer said:

 

It would be interesting to see how these annexations and detachments have impacted the population figures. In theory, Columbus could have grown in size, but lost population due to the detachments. 

 

If I ever have the time and feeling insane enough, I'll go through every single one of these annexations/detachments over time and figure out the exact population for every single event date. 

5 hours ago, jonoh81 said:

 

If I ever have the time and feeling insane enough, I'll go through every single one of these annexations/detachments over time and figure out the exact population for every single event date. 

Godspeed to you. I believe a lot of the annexation in the past 20-25 years has been industrial areas around 270 and 23 on the southside. I wouldn’t be surprised if annexation minus detachments ends up being a net loss in terms of population. 

You probably know about the Rickenbacker JEDD which keeps Columbus from annexing any more near Rickenbacker but gets them some revenue to be shared with Groveport, Obetz, Lockbourne, both Madison Townships, Hamilton Township, Harrison Township and Ashville. I swear there was a short period of time when Columbus annexed all of Rickenbacker right before the JEDD was formed but it might have gotten "expunged" and therefore never made the map. And it meant Columbus picked up another county in a bit of Pickaway.

2 hours ago, cbussoccer said:

Godspeed to you. I believe a lot of the annexation in the past 20-25 years has been industrial areas around 270 and 23 on the southside. I wouldn’t be surprised if annexation minus detachments ends up being a net loss in terms of population. 

 

I don't know why you would think a net gain of 3+ square miles would create a net loss of population. Just the 2019 annexation of the farms south and north of Renner at Alton-Darby alone are in development for ~1,000 homes.

 

 

 

2 hours ago, GCrites said:

You probably know about the Rickenbacker JEDD which keeps Columbus from annexing any more near Rickenbacker but gets them some revenue to be shared with Groveport, Obetz, Lockbourne, both Madison Townships, Hamilton Township, Harrison Township and Ashville. I swear there was a short period of time when Columbus annexed all of Rickenbacker right before the JEDD was formed but it might have gotten "expunged" and therefore never made the map. And it meant Columbus picked up another county in a bit of Pickaway.

 

The Rickenbacker JEDDs are only in play in Pickaway County. Columbus continues to annex in Hamilton and Madison Townships. In the past few years, the city has annexed each of new warehouses completed in the rail campus along Rail Court North and Rail Court South. 

9 hours ago, ink said:

 

I don't know why you would think a net gain of 3+ square miles would create a net loss of population. Just the 2019 annexation of the farms south and north of Renner at Alton-Darby alone are in development for ~1,000 homes.

 

 

 

 

The gain wouldn't result in a net loss. The gain minus the areas detached could, in theory, result in a net loss. Yes, that Alton-Darby area is now in development for 1,000 homes. Key words being "in development". It wasn't an immediate addition of population. 

 

But again, I don't know. I was simply posing a question. All I know is Columbus has annexed a ton of industrial space which includes virtually zero residential population. I don't know which areas it has detached from though.

11 hours ago, ink said:

 

The Rickenbacker JEDDs are only in play in Pickaway County. Columbus continues to annex in Hamilton and Madison Townships. In the past few years, the city has annexed each of new warehouses completed in the rail campus along Rail Court North and Rail Court South. 

 

Oh, I see. Ashville and South Bloomfield aren't even part of the JEDD but are a part of the CEDA. So the JEDD is just Columbus, Harrison and Madison (Pickaway). Groveport can only annex a little more land relevant to Rickenbacker because it is now landlocked in that vicinity.

 

Columbus a popular moving destination for millennials

 

"According to a SmartAsset study, millions of millennials are moving to larger cities from areas within their home state. The site ranked the 271 largest U.S. cities by the number of people aged 25-44, who recently moved there, evaluating their appeal to millennials.

 

More than 75,000 people ages 25–44 moved to Columbus in 2023, according to the Smart Asset report, good for No. 13 overall. The city was behind No. 12 Denver (more than 83,000 millennial move-ins) but ahead of metropolises such as San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Boston and Portland.

 

Currently, a little more than 34% of Columbus’ population are millennials, according to data cited in the SmartAsset study using data from a U.S. Census Bureau 2023 survey. 

 

Cleveland (No. 52) and Cincinnati (No. 56) both had more than 21,000 millennial move-ins in 2023, per SmartAsset."

 

https://www.dispatch.com/

 

By the Numbers: Central Ohio Population Growing, More Housing Needed

 

According to newly released U.S. census data, the Columbus Metropolitan Area grew by 30,348 residents between 2023 and 2024, bringing the regional population to a total of 2,225,377 last summer. The Central Ohio region remains the second largest in the state, only behind Cincinnati’s metro population of 2,302,815, and that gap continues to narrow.
 

Franklin County remains the largest county in the state, with 1,356,303 residents and a yearly estimated increase of 17,400.

In a press release from the US Census Bureau, it was pointed out that the majority of metro area growth across the US was due to international migration — something that could slow in the coming years under President Trump.

 

City population estimates for 2024 are coming out today.

Columbus added 12,694 July 1, 2023 to July 1, 2024. This was the 14th largest numeric increase of all cities with populations above 20,000.

The population reached 933,263 last year. This makes it the largest city in Ohio at any point in history.

What's interesting is that if we take off the 12,694, the population would've been 920,596. However, the original July 1, 2023 estimate was just 913,175. That represents a very large 1-year estimate adjustment upward of 7,394. That indicates Columbus is growing a lot faster than previous estimates have been indicating. It's possible that the 2024 will also be revised upward in the next estimate next May. Since Census 2020, Columbus has added 27,324, almost all of which has occurred in the last 2 years as it has reversed the short-term Covid decline.

It's ranking fell to 15th largest, as Charlotte finally passed it. It should remain in 15th place for the foreseeable future as there are no cities under it growing fast enough to pass it anytime in at least the next decade.

Edited May 15May 15 by jonoh81

Well done Columbus!

https://allcolumbusdata.com/2024-city-population-estimates/

Here is every incorporated place in the Columbus metro area.