Ohio gained more than 183 thousand people from 2000 to 2010.  Butler, Warren and Delaware Counties all showed big gains, but Cuyahoga and Mahoning were the big losers… and they’re home to two of Northeast Ohio’s biggest cities, Cleveland and Youngstown, respectively.
Those cities saw double digit percentage loses in population, but not everyone was headed for sunny southern climates or far off lands.  Summit County held almost steady, while Medina jumped 14.4 percent.
Mark Salling is the director of the Northern Ohio Data and Information Service at Cleveland State University, and he says that’s in line with the cycle of people moving away from big cities.

Columbus is now twice the size of Cleveland, which shrank under 400 thousand for the first time.  Columbus’ Franklin County was the only major urban county to see growth anywhere in Ohio.
Population decline was greater in the first half of the decade, but slowed down in the second half.  Salling attributes that to the housing crisis, which made it tough for people to relocate simply due to economics.  But, there was also an upside.

Ohio’s population is now just over 11 and a half million people, a 1.6 percent gain, which is the third-lowest gain in the country.  Because of the low growth, Ohio will be losing 2 of its 18 Congressional seats next year.
The only state to lose population since 2000 was Michigan.