A little more than 4 years ago, I posted numbers on the recovery of Ohio downtowns, and what that might mean for the future. That post has proven to be one of the site’s most popular. I figured it was time to take a look at their continuing changes.
You can see by the chart for the 1950 Boundary population, the urban core of each city, that all 3-Cs suffered population losses post-1950. However, the rate of losses gradually declined, and 2 of the cities, Columbus and Cincinnati, appear to be growing in this boundary since at least 2010. Cleveland continues to lose.
This is shown further by the chart below.
As far as the actual Downtowns of each, here are the population trends.
For the most part, population declines in the 3-Cs peaked around 1980, give or take a decade. Since then, all of them have seen increases, with Cleveland seeing the most rapid increase and Cincinnati the least. Columbus has seen steady, but increasingly rapid growth with each subsequent decade since 1980.
The US Census recently released 2015 census tract population density data, including census tract population density. I figured midway through the decade would be a good point to update where these stand because they give greater insight in smaller-scale population changes. I looked at all the census tracts in Franklin County and came up with the following map series.
First, the population in 2015.
Next, the population density of tracts in 2010, as reference.
And now 2015.
On the surface, it’s difficult to see the changes, but put side by side, you can tell there have been a lot of increases across the county. To make this more visible, I made the following maps.
You can see that some of the strongest density increases occurred around Downtown and the Short North, New Albany, parts of the Campus area, and Dublin.
The map above gives a straightforward look at where the density increased and decreased. As you can see, the increases FAR outweighed the decreases. Most of the latter were scattered except across the Far South Side and parts of the Whitehall area.
Here were the top 20 most dense census tracts in 2015. 1. 1810: 29,508.2 South Campus/Victorian Village 2. 1121: 25,287.9 Main Campus 3. 13: 21,961.4 Campus/Indianola Terrace 4. 1110: 18168.6 North Campus/Tuttle Park 5. 10: 17386.3 Campus/SoHud 6. 12: 16,981.9 Campus/Iuka Ravine 7. 20: 13,030.5 Short North/Victorian Village 8. 17: 12,872.3 Weinland Park 9. 6: 12,153.6 Old North Columbus 10. 21: 10,853.5 Short North/High Street 11. 8163: 10,255.3 Lincoln Village/Southwest Columbus 12: 4810: 9,557.4 South Central Hilltop 13. 47: 9,492.7 North Central Hilltop 14. 6352: 9,434.0 Northwest Columbus/Henderson Road 15. 57: 9,257.4 Brewery District/South German Village 16. 5: 9,177.9 Old North Columbus 17. 6933: 9,090.9 Forest Park East 18. 16: 8,980.5 Weinland Park 19. 4620: 8,928.6 North Central Hilltop 20. 1820: 8743.3 Victorian Village
It’s obvious that the High Street corridor is the most dense of the city, racking up most of the top 20.
Now here are the 20 tracts with the largest density increases 2010-2015. 1. 1121: 4,375.9 2. 6: 2,178.5 3. 21: 1,934.9 4. 22: 1,478.1 5. 40: 1,107.7 South Downtown 6. 1820: 1,044.1 7. 20: 921.7 8. 38: 904.3 Old Towne East 9. 5: 861.2 10. 210: 833.9 Clintonville 11. 32: 751.1 Arena District West/West Victorian Village 12. 730: 736.9 13. 7551: 656.0 Somerset/South Easton 14. 7951: 610.4 West Columbus 15. 6372: 574.6 Hayden Falls/Sawmill Road 16. 7209: 514 New Albany 17. 7395: 497.6 Blacklick/East Broad 18. 10: 492.8 19. 8230: 449.3 Westland 20. 710: 447.3 West-Central Linden
And finally, the top 20 largest declines 2010-2015. 1. 13: -2,964.3 2. 12: -1,625.1 3. 42: -1,620.8 Scioto Peninsula/East Franklinton 4. 920: -902.2 Northeast Linden 5. 17: -775.4 6. 50: -554.4 Franklinton 7. 61: -485.7 South High Street 8. 59: -441.9 Near South Side/Deshler Park 9. 4620: -380.4 10. 720: -380.2 11. 4610: -335.4 12. 820: -305.4 North Linden 13. 7721: -305.2 North Linden 14. 45: -258.1 North Hilltop 15. 60: -253.2 Vassor Village 16. 810: North Central Linden 17. 7532: -240.3 Morse Road/Easton 18. 2520: -240.1 Near East Side/King-Lincoln 19. 47: -206.6 20. 9333: -194.9 Linwood
So there you have it. The Census Tract Maps page gives demographic and population data for census tracts going back to 1930.
