CLEVELAND, Ohio – Decades of population decline in Cleveland has continued through 2020, with Census results released Thursday showing 372,624 residents living in the city.
That’s 6.1% less – or about 24,000 residents fewer — than in 2010, when the city was home to 396,815 people.
The 2020 numbers, delayed due the pandemic, mean that the number of Cleveland City Council seats will drop down to 15 from the current number of 17. That change is triggered by the city charter, which requires the number of wards and council seats to be reduced by two once the city’s population dips below 375,000. The changes will affect council races in 2025 and 2029, but not the upcoming 2021 election.
The decline from 2010 through 2020 is the third-smallest drop in population since 1950, when the city hit its peak of 914,808. Population has been on the decline every decade since then, with the city recording a 17% decline between 2000 and 2010, a 5.4% decline from 1990 through 2000, and an average decline of 16.6% in the decades between 1960 and 1990.
Cuyahoga County’s 2020 population is 1.26 million, according to Census figures, holding relatively steady with 2010, when it was 1.28 million.
The county’s population peaked in 1970 at 1.7 million, dropping to 1.5 million by 1980, and staying at about 1.4 million in both 1990 and 2000.
This is a breaking news story, and will be updated with more data and context.
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