Thursday, June 15, 2023

Disappearing cities of the United States: Youngstown, Ohio (2022 census update)


The population of Youngstown has decreased 65% since its 1920 peak of 170,002.  The city has fewer residents now than it did in 1910.


Free Courier-Press, 3/30/2023

Get Me Rewrite:  Youngstown, OH Has Lost
Nearly Half Its Population Since 1980 


1/17/2022 update starts here

What used to fueled Youngstown's economy


Youngstown's population decreased 10% from 2010 to 2020.  Since its 1930 peak, the city's population decreased 65%.

Wikipedia

Youngstown Vindicator, 8/16/2021
Figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau show Mahoning County lost 10,209 residents between 2010 and 2020, and Trumbull County lost 8,335 residents — putting them among the 33 counties of Ohio’s 88 that lost population. 
The loss in Mahoning County represents a 4.2 percent decline from 2010, when the population was 238,823. The latest census figures have Mahoning County at 228,614. 
Youngstown lost the most — 6,914 residents, a loss of 10.3 percent from 66,982 the city had in 2010.

5/25/2021 update, "Reversing decades of decline in Youngstown Ohio is no easy task", starts here.

First of all, its population has been declining for 90 years and is currently at 40% of its 1930 peak of 170,002.  The 2019 estimated population of 64,459 is about the same as it was when Teddy Roosevelt was president in 1907.

Source:  Wikipedia

Secondly, the city's minority-majority demographics are not likely to engender much concern from the leadership of the Ohio State Senate and House of Representatives 

Source:  U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts

% of population 25 and older with bachelor's degree:
  • 13.6% - Youngstown
  • 28.3% - Ohio
  • 32.1% - U.S.
% of population 65 and older:
  • 17.3% - Youngstown
  • 17.5% - Ohio
  • 16.5% - U.S.
% of population living in poverty:
  • 35.2% - Youngstown
  • 13.1% - Ohio
  • 10.5% - U.S. (they're joking, of course)
  

11/2/2019 update, "Youngstown Ohio has had its share of ups and downs (The Great Depression edition)" starts here.


Notecard annotation from 1970s research on The Great Depression.  which turned out to be nothing more than a self-learning exercise.

Link to the article

7/24/2019 update, "And the hits just keep on coming -- to Youngstown, Ohio", starts here.

(screenshot)

Brown: Vindicator closing will hurt the area.  (Youngstown Vindicator, 7/22/2019)
The newspaper’s closure comes a few months after GM ended production in March of the Chevrolet Cruze at the 53-year-old Lordstown plant in March, eliminating about 1,600 jobs left at that facility. As recently as January 2017, there were 4,500 workers there. 
The association’s mayors said they’re seeing GM workers in their communities putting their houses up for sale as they leave the area for jobs at the automaker’s other plants. 
[U.S. Senator Sherrod] Brown said he’s heard nothing new about the future of the idled Lordstown facility.

Original 1/9/2019 post, "Disappearing U.S. city of the day:  Youngstown, Ohio", starts here.

Source:  Wikipedia

Youngstown's population peaked at 170,002 in 1930.  Its 2017 estimated population is 64,604 -- a drop of 105,398, or 62%.


African-Americans comprised 12.7% of the population in 1950.

Youngstown in located in Mahoning County, where the population peaked at 303,424 in 1970.  Its 2017 estimated population is 229,796, a drop of 24%.  

Related reading:
America's Fastest Shrinking City:  The Story of Youngstown, Ohio.  (The Hampton Institute, 6/18/2013)
Nearly one hundred years ago, the steel city of Youngstown, Ohio was on the rise. Like many cities and towns in what was the "Industrial Heartland of North America," Youngstown steadily boomed with the rise of manufacturing. The population of the city rose from 33,000 in 1890 to 170,000 in 1930. Youngstown became the center of Mahoning Valley, better known as the "Steel Valley." Steel mills lined the Mahoning River for miles. Enormous industrial concerns like Republic Steel (founded in Youngstown) the U.S. Steel Ohio Works and Youngstown Sheet and Tube's Brier Hill Works operated day and night, dominating the city's skyline and encasing the heavens around Youngstown in a leaden haze. Few seemed to mind though, for as one steelworker put it, "Everybody breathing dirt, eating dirt-they call it 'pay dirt,' for Youngstown clean would be Youngstown out of work."  Youngstown grew as an economic monoculture. Steel dominated every aspect of life.

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)
Wheeling, West Virginia.  (1/16/2019)
Youngstown, Ohio.  (1/9/2019)

They're not alone.  Other population loss series.
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