Rust Never Sleeps: 22 American Cities Slowly Flaking Away
Rust Never Sleeps: 22 American Cities Slowly Flaking Away
(Bloomberg) -- Parts of the Rust Belt keep rusting.
While some American cities are enjoying revivals, others are losing out. Using Census Bureau data, Bloomberg identified 22 cities that had populations of at least 50,000 in the 2010 Census and lost people ever since.
Worse off are Detroit, Cleveland and Toledo, former industrial powerhouses crippled by the decline of American manufacturing and shrinking tax bases.
Since the 2010 Census, Detroit’s population shrank by more than 40,000 with an average decline of more than 5,000 per year. Cleveland and Toledo dropped by more than 10,000, respectively.
Flint, Michigan and Erie, Pennsylvania started the decade with a population greater than 100,000 and are now below that level. Saginaw, Michigan; Charleston, West Virginia; and Niagara Falls, New York are sub-50,000.
| City | Losses |
| Detroit, Michigan | -40,673 |
| Cleveland, Ohio | -11,290 |
| Toledo, Ohio | -10,717 |
| Flint, Michigan | -5,986 |
| Rockford, Illinois | -5,820 |
| Mobile, Alabama | -4,846 |
| Erie, Pennsylvania | -4,417 |
| Gary, Indiana | -4,286 |
| Hammond, Indiana | -4,212 |
| Decatur, Illinois | -3,948 |
| Dearborn, Michigan | -3,662 |
| Charleston, West Virginia | -3,471 |
| Rocky Mount, North Carolina | -2,954 |
| Livonia, Michigan | -2,837 |
| Saginaw, Michigan | -2,831 |
| Parma, Ohio | -2,434 |
| Westland, Michigan | -2,347 |
| Dearborn Heights, Michigan | -2,016 |
| Lakewood, Ohio | -1,882 |
| Niagara Falls, New York | -1,733 |
| Utica, New York | -1,600 |
| Battle Creek, Michigan | -1,061 |
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Tanzi in Washington at atanzi@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stephen Foxwell at sfoxwell@bloomberg.net, Vincent Del Giudice
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