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County population now fourth largest in Ohio
By Rick Armon
Beacon Journal
Published on Thursday, Mar 20, 2008
Listen carefully enough, and you'll still hear it.
Summit County sometimes is referred to as the fifth-largest county in Ohio, even by county leaders.
Wrong.
Overlooked in the persistent sobering population news for Ohio and lost among Census Bureau revisions, Summit County has overtaken Montgomery as the fourth largest in the state.
Alas, it's not that the population here has exploded. Summit continues to lose people, according to county population
estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.
But Montgomery is losing folks faster.
As history will show, the two counties swapped positions in 2005. But when the census reported estimates for that year, Montgomery — the home to Dayton — still held the lead.
Confused?
Somewhere along the way, the Census Bureau revised its estimates and voila . . . Summit is fourth with 543,487 people, trailing only Cuyahoga, Franklin and Hamilton among the state's 88 counties. Montgomery has 538,104 people — and has lost nearly 21,000 since the 2000 census.
''I didn't know that,'' Summit County Executive Russ Pry said Wednesday about the new ranking.
Ohio led the nation with seven of the 34 counties with the biggest population declines in 2007, while the state had just two of the 100 fastest-growing counties.
Ohio counties that ranked among the biggest population losers were led by Cuyahoga with the second-biggest population decline nationally, a loss of 13,304.
Ohio's other big population losers were Hamilton (Cincinnati), Montgomery, Mahoning (Youngstown), Lucas (Toledo), Trumbull (Warren) and Summit counties. Summit lost 1,564 people last year.
The declining population trend also was reflected in many of Ohio's smaller rural counties, according to Thomas Finnerty, associate director of Youngstown State University's Center for Urban and Regional Studies. The population declines reflect the loss of jobs, deaths outpacing births and limited migration to Ohio, he said.
''They keep losing jobs and losing population. It's kind of a cause-and-effect thing,'' he said.
Overall, the new census figures revealed no major surprises and reinforced well-known trends for Ohio, said Steven Kelley, senior economist with the Ohio Department of Development's Office of Strategic Research.
Those include:
• The state grew by about 3,400 people in 2007, and has gained only about 114,000 people since 2000. For comparison, Maricopa County, Ariz., the home to Phoenix, has added 808,000 residents since 2000.
• Delaware and Warren counties remain among the 100 fastest-growing in the nation. Delaware, located north of Columbus, has grown by 46 percent since 2000, while Warren, located between Cincinnati and Dayton, grew by 28.5 percent.
• Cuyahoga County keeps losing population. The county has lost nearly 100,000 people since 2000.
• The growth in Medina County continues, but at a slower pace than earlier this decade. The county gained 1,798 people last year. Medina has grown 12.4 percent since 2000.
Stephen D. Hambley, a Medina County commissioner, said good schools and lower taxes have attracted newcomers. That, in turn, has led to surging enrollments, with 500 students attending classes in trailers in Medina city schools, he said.
''It's like a good fishing hole. Everyone wants it,'' he said.
Elsewhere in the U.S., nine of the 10 fastest-growing counties were located in the South or West. Seventy of the 100 fastest-growing counties were in the South, with 22 in the West and eight in the Midwest.
St. Bernard, a Louisiana parish hit hard by Hurricane Katrina, was the fastest-growing county in the nation at 42.9 percent last year. Maricopa County gained the most people, increasing by 102,000.
Los Angeles, Calif., remained the most populous county, with a population of 9.9 million.
Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Listen carefully enough, and you'll still hear it.
Get the full article here.
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