Columbus population up 15% over 10 years

COLUMBUS — Columbus now has 905,748 residents, according to results of the 2020 Census. That’s up 15% since 2010.

Nearly two-thirds of Ohio’s counties lost population in the last decade, while fast-growing areas such as Franklin County continued to add residents.

Ohio’s population grew by just under 263,000, according to population numbers for counties, cities, villages and individual census tracts released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The largest population drop among counties occurred in Harrison County, west of Steubenville, which dropped 8.7% to 14,483.

Ohio is still the nation’s seventh-largest state, but it could be eclipsed over the next 10 years by fast-growing Georgia, now the eighth-largest, which grew to 10.7 million in 2020 from 9.7 million in 2010, a 10.3% leap.

Central Ohio counties accounted for five of Ohio’s six fastest-growing population centers over the last decade, adding almost 235,600 residents and accounting for about 90% of the state’s total growth between 2010 and 2020, the Census Bureau reported. The other major growth county was Warren, where population rose just under 30,000 to 242,337.

Franklin County was by far the state’s major growth center by number of residents, adding 160,000 people to become the state’s largest at 1.32 million people. Cuyahoga County lost the most people: 15,305, a drop of 1.2%, to 1.26 million, but maintained its rank as the state’s second-largest county.

Hamilton County (Cincinnati) gained slightly in population, 3.5%, from 802,374 in 2010 to 830,639.

Summit County (Akron) dipped slightly, by 0.2%, from 541,781 to 540,428. Stark County (Canton and Massillon) also dipped by 0.2%, from 375,589 to 374,853.

Delaware County topped Ohio’s expansion percentage-wise by almost 23%, with its population now at 214,124. Delaware’s percentage growth was followed by the counties of Union (20%), Warren (13.9%), Franklin (13.8%), Fairfield (8.7%) and Licking (7.2%).

Scott Sanders, executive director of the Delaware County Regional Planning Commission, expected his county’s numbers. “We had projected it would be 218,000 based on building permits,” he said.

Remaining the fastest growing county in the state gets harder as the population grows, he said.

Growing responsibly will be the ongoing challenge, Sanders said.

“There’s always that tension to make sure we can provide services,” he said.

Meanwhile, Columbus’ population is now 905,748 — up 15% from the 787,033 in 2010 — making it by far the state’s largest city.

All of Columbus’ growth can be attributed to an increase in the Black, Asian, Latino and other community groups, as the city’s white population dipped slightly.

Many of the state’s largest cities continue to shrink, including Cleveland, Akron, Dayton, Canton and Toledo and Youngstown.

Cleveland’s population dropped 6% from 396,815 to 372,624. Akron was down 4.3%, from 199,110 to 190,469.

Columbus has long been Ohio’s largest city, bolstered by aggressive annexation policies decades ago that grew its geographic footprint and a diverse economy that has drawn people from other areas of the state, country, and in recent decades, a growing number of immigrants.