In today’s edition of the series, we have a Cool Link for the 1950 Census. 1950 census data was already available on different websites, but it was general population and demographic data only. The National Archives and Record Administration, or NARA, has now released complete records. Many of these records were unavailable to the general public prior to this release because the data fell under what’s called the “72 Year Rule”, in which the US government will not release any personally identifiable information until 72 years has passed after the date of data collection. With the 1950 Census, that time has come.
You can search the records by place, record type or even by a person’s name. This is great not only for historic population and demographic data, but also for genealogical research into family histories.
I posted the 2012 city estimates from the US Census yesterday. Within them may be an interesting trend that has long-term implications for Columbus and other cities, so today we’re going to go over 2012 urban and suburban population trends, and see how they compare.
A lot of the talk in the news in recent years has been how urban core cities are seeing a comeback of sorts. I’ve made mention of it several times, myself, with hard data located on the Demographics and Population part of this site. However, there is some disagreement between urban proponents and suburban proponents about what’s really going on, and that disagreement seems to focus mostly around if the city is growing faster than the suburbs, and if so, if that trend can be sustained.
Looking over the estimates, I noticed something that may support the urban back-to-the-city argument, at least in Columbus. What I noticed was that those villages/towns/cities that were growing tended to be clustered closer to the urban core of the metro than those that were losing population.
I first gathered the data on the Columbus metro area’s 99 incorporated places, ranging in population from 36 on up to Columbus’ 809,798. I then measured the distance between Columbus’ Downtown center and the center of all 99 places. I then broke them up into increments of about 5 miles each. Here is some of what I found.
Average Total Population Growth by Place 2010-2012 by Distance from Columbus’ Center 0-4.9 Miles: 3,962.8 5-9.9 Miles: 438.4 10-14.9 Miles: 342.8 15-19.9 Miles: 26.5 20-24.9 Miles: 148.9 25+ Miles: 10.5
What this says, is that for the most part, the closer a place is to the center, the more total average growth it’s had since 2010. While the 0-4.9 mile distance is somewhat skewed because it includes Columbus’ growth, there is also a significant drop-off beyond 15 miles from the center.
Next, I looked at all the places that saw either 0 population change or a loss during the 2010-2012 period. Again, it was separated by the distance from Columbus’ center.
0-4.9 Miles: 0 of 6, or 0.0% 5-9.9 Miles: 0 of 12, or 0.0% 10-14.9 Miles: 1 of 12, or 8.3% 15-19.9 Miles: 2 of 8, or 25.0% 20-24.9 Miles: 2 of 10, or 20.0% 25+ Miles: 21 of 51, or 41.2%
What this shows is that the further the distance away from the center, in general, the more places there were that were stagnant or lost population since 2010.
Finally, I looked at the top 15 total population increases of all places from 2010-2012, as well as their distance from Columbus’ center. 1. Columbus (obviously): +22,765- 0 Miles 2. Hilliard: +2,129- 9.9 Miles 3. Grove City: +1,257- 7.4 Miles 4. Delaware: +1,172- 23.6 Miles 5. Dublin: +1,155- 11.3 Miles 6. Westerville: +953- 12.0 Miles 7. New Albany: +783- 13.0 Miles 8. Gahanna: +580- 7.5 Miles 9. Powell: +460- 14.2 Miles 10. Reynoldsburg: +454- 9.9 Miles 11. Upper Arlington: +432- 4.1 Miles 12. Pickerington: +401- 14.1 Miles 13. Grandview Heights: +374- 2.6 Miles 14. Whitehall: +341- 6.0 Miles 15. Canal Winchester: +292- 12.7 Miles
12 of the 15 are within Franklin County. Another 2 (Pickerington and Powell) are near the Franklin County border. Only Delaware is beyond 15 miles from Columbus’ center.
So do these numbers show a real trend? Maybe. Some of the questions are: Do 2 years of data support a real trend or just a blip? Is this really an urban movement or a rural decline… or both? Is this a new/recent trend or have the numbers been changing? Those questions and others need to be answered before making a definitive statement, but if nothing else, they are a positive indication that Columbus and it’s immediate surroundings remain the metro’s (and Ohio’s) strongest population draw.
