By 1812Blockhouse
Thursday marked a day which demographers and politicians both dread and love — the day that US Census figures were released for states, counties, and incorporated areas. In this case, those were official numbers for the 2020 Census.
Around these parts, the result was rather positive.
Richland County saw its population increase by 0.4%, reaching a total of 124,396. Across Ohio, central Ohio saw the biggest gains, with Delaware County growing by over 22% to 214,124 residents. Other Ohio counties in the top six statewide for growth rates included Union, Warren, Franklin, Fairfield, and Licking.
As a whole, Ohio’s population grew by over 260,000.
As for metropolitan areas, Columbus and Cincinnati saw gains while Akron, Cleveland, Toledo, Youngstown, and Dayton shrank in size. Columbus’ population is nearing the one million mark, standing at 905,748.
Individual cities and villages in Richland County had the following Census counts:
- Mansfield — 47,534, a decrease of 287 or 0.6%
- Shelby — 9,282, a decrease of 35 or 0.4%
- Bellville — 1,963, an increase of 45 or 2.3%
- Butler — 941, an increase of 8 or 0.9%
- Lexington — 4,848, an increase of 26 or 0.5%
- Lucas — 589, a decrease of 26 or 4.2%
- Ontario — 6,656, an increase of 431 or 6.9%
- Plymouth — 1,707, a decrease of 150 or 8.1%
- Shiloh — 619, a decrease of 30 or 4.6%
Interestingly, Mansfield saw a decline in the number of white and Black residents, but an increase in other races, including Hispanic.
