COLUMBUS, Ohio — Columbus is growing, and now there is even more proof.
The Greater Ohio Policy Center released a report this week showing that the Columbus metropolitan area has grown significantly from 2000 to 2020, much more than other major Ohio cities. Census data was collected and analyzed for the report, which is titled “Ohio + Columbus: Tale of Two States.”
“While Columbus is doing great, we know that the rest of the state, you know, is in a different position,” said Alison Goebel, executive director of the Greater Ohio Policy Center. “I think a lot of people intuitively know that Columbus and the rest of the state are different things, but we felt like, okay, instead of just kind of working from the gut, let’s look at the data, right?”
The data shows Ohio’s population grew 3% between 2000 and 2020. But, if the Columbus metro area had been removed, the state’s population actually would have dropped by 1%. That amounts to a loss of 100,000 people, roughly the size of Allen County.
“Columbus is doing its thing, and that’s great, but let’s make sure that we’re thinking about other places because the trends look very different if we don’t have Columbus washing out what’s going on there,” Goebel said.
The report points to history as a major reason for the growth disparity. It looked at the 23 largest cities in Ohio, breaking them down between “legacy” and “non-legacy” cities.
A “legacy” city is one that grew around a manufacturing economy in the early to mid-1900s. That amounts to every major city other than Columbus. And those cities are seeing a decline in both population and jobs. Columbus is the state’s only “non-legacy” city, meaning it developed later, based around professional and government services, along with the education and medical fields.
The city drew Caitie Pagnotta and her husband back to Ohio this past July. She’s a certified child life specialist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
“When we were looking at places, Columbus was one of the first places we looked at, just first for family and friends, but also as a place that had lots of growing opportunity for both of us and our family,” she said. “Looking, of course, for me, at Nationwide Children’s, being a child life specialist, was an easy yes as it is such an amazing children’s hospital.”
But Goebel points out that what works in Columbus is not a one-size-fits-all strategy for the entire state. In fact, she says the smaller cities that already are working on finding new ways to grow could end up providing inspiration for Columbus once the growth in the capital city finally slows.