Four of the state's five fastest growing counties in the past decade were in central Ohio, including Delaware, whose 58.4-percent population growth topped the list.
Columbus bucks downward trend of other cities
By Bill Bush
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Central Ohio became more diverse while growing at a 14 percent clip over the past decade, with the Latino population swelling in particular, census figures released yesterday show.And while the exodus from the city of Cleveland continued, the city of Columbus surged. With roughly 787,000 residents, Columbus is now almost twice as big as Cleveland.
"Without Columbus, we'd be looking at Michigan (population losses) times two," said Nancy Reger, a demographer with the Mid Ohio Regional Planning Commission. "Central Ohio is ... absolutely carrying the state. It's a place where people want to live. They stay here."
In fact, the seven-county central Ohio region had four of the top five fastest-growing counties. Delaware topped the list, as it did in the 2000 census, with a 58 percent growth rate. Franklin County came in 13th (8.8 percent).
The region's increase outpaced the state, which grew by 1.6 percent. "In the 1990s, it was the same deal," Reger said.
The data released yesterday offer the first detailed look at Ohio's population from the 2010 census. It included population and race counts.
In central Ohio, the number of Latinos more than doubled in every county except Pickaway, where it grew 77 percent. In 1990, Latinos represented 1 percent of Franklin County's population. In 2010, they numbered almost 56,000 residents, or about 5 percent of the population.
"Columbus offers a good social and economic community," said John O. Ramos, acting Ohio director of the League of United Latin American Citizens. "On a personal level, I know plenty of friends of mine who've moved from Cleveland and relocated to Columbus."
The state's white population dropped from 84 percent to about 81 percent in the past decade. In 1990, more than 87 percent of Ohioans were white.
Latino residents increased by 63 percent over the past decade, to 354,000 Ohioans. The jump is almost 154 percent over two decades. Latinos now are about 3.1 percent of Ohio's 11.54 million residents, up from 1.9 percent in 2000 and 1.3 percent in 1990.
Other racial minorities also grew faster than the number of white residents in the past decade. The number of blacks increased by 7.6 percent, to 1.39 million. The state's Asian population grew about 45 percent, to almost 191,000.
Black residents continued to move into the northern and eastern parts of central Ohio, with Fairfield County showing the largest percentage increase in the state, at 165 percent, to about 8,600 black residents. Delaware and Licking counties were also in the top five in percentage increases in black residents.
Union County led the state in the growth of the Asian population, shooting up 545 percent, just ahead of Delaware County, which was up 339 percent.
Among the five largest cities in Ohio, Columbus was the only one to grow, with a 10.6 percent increase to 787,033 people. Cleveland had the largest fall (17.1 percent).
"We've made a point in investing in our quality of life over the years," said Dan Williamson, a spokesman for Columbus Mayor
Michael B. Coleman. "Clearly, Columbus is a place where people want to live."
Franklin County added more people than any other county in Ohio - more than 94,000 - bringing its population to 1.16 million. It ranked second behind Cuyahoga County, which had 1.28 million residents in 2010, down 8.2 percent from a decade earlier.
Delaware County added more than 64,000 residents, but several other central Ohio suburbs also grew tremendously over the past decade, which could force three of them - Canal Winchester, Groveport and New Albany - to incorporate into cities because they now have more than 5,000 residents. Granville also topped 5,000, but the figure included college students from Denison University.
The village of New Albany had the fastest growth among area cities, climbing 108 percent to 7,724 residents.
Before yesterday, only state-level census data were available for Ohio. That showed Ohio's population grew 1.6 percent in the past decade, to 11,536,504.
Because other parts of the nation have grown more, the state will lose two seats in the House of Representatives, down to 16.
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