Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Disappearing cities of the United States: Wheeling, West Virginia (2022 census update)


The City of Wheeling's 2022 estimated population decreased 2.5% since the 2020 census.  Its population is down 57% since its 1930 peak of 61,659.

SourceWikipedia

Local officials have been hopeful in recent years that the decades-long population decline in the area will soon plateau and eventually bounce back. According to new estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau this week, there are plenty of areas in the country that are growing — the Ohio Valley is just not one of them.

Original 2/2/2022 post starts here

Heavy industry fueled Wheeling's growth and its loss accelerated its decline.




Wheeling's population dropped 5% during the 2010s and 56% since its peak 90 years ago.


Topping the list of fastest shrinking cities in America was Pine Bluff, Arkansas, followed by Danville, Illinois. Reports cite these area’s dependency on dwindling industrial and manufacturing jobs as the primary cause for the significant drops in population. 
Loss of a booming steel industry over the decades has been attributed to the decline in many of these shrinking cities, including those in West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle. Likewise, coal has been an economic backbone of the Ohio Valley and other Rust Belt regions of the country, but the heyday of coal is set further in the past as pressure continues in the wake of an ongoing push for more green energy.

Original 1/16/2019 post starts here


Source:  Wikipedia

Wheeling's population peaked at 61,659 in 1930.  Its 2017 estimated population is 27,086 -- a drop of 56%.


Wheeling is located almost entirely in Ohio County.  The county's population peaked at 73,115 in 1940.  Its 2017 estimated population is 42,035, a drop of 43%.  

Source:  Wikipedia

Related reading:
Communities Built on Steel Fear Its Collapse.  (The New York Times, 2/2/2002)
For decades, steel making has meant fat paychecks and steady jobs for thousands of families in the Ohio Valley towns that stretch north from here. 
But now there is fear, bordering on panic, that the hometown steel company that has brought middle-class prosperity could be at death's door. That company, the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation, has filed for bankruptcy, and its managers and workers say that the blast furnaces, rolling mills, foundries, coke ovens and galvanizing shops -- as well as a way of life -- could go under any day now unless Washington rushes to the rescue and somehow limits low-cost imports.

The disappearing cities:
Aliquippa, Pennsylvania.  (1/12/2019)
Baltimore, Maryland.  (12/31/2018)
Benton Harbor, Michigan.  (1/15/2019)
Buffalo, New York, (1/8/2019)
Cairo, Illinois.   (1/5/2019)
Cleveland, Ohio (1/2/2019)
Detroit, Michigan.  (1/1/2019)
East St. Louis, Illinois.  (1/11/2019)
Flint, Michigan.  (1/7/2019)
Gary, Indiana.  (1/4/2019)
Johnstown, Pennsylvania.  (1/6/2019)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  (1/13/2019)
St. Louis, Missouri.  (1/2/2019)
Scranton, Pennsylvania.  (1/14/2019)
Youngstown, Ohio.  (1/9/2019)

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