Ohio History Journal

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OHIO POPULATION TRENDS, 1920-1940

OHIO POPULATION TRENDS, 1920-1940

 

BY RANDOLPH C. DOWNES

 

From the point of view of population figures, Ohio has almost

stopped growing. The following table1 taken from the 1940 cen-

sus report shows that the increase of 260,915 in the 1930's is the

smallest 10-year growth since the first decade of the eighteenth

century and the smallest percentage of growth in Ohio's entire

history.

Census                          10-yr. Increase                              10-yr. Increase

Year                                  Population       In Numbers  In Percentages

1940                                   6,907,612                                  260,915                                    3.9

1930                                   6,646,697                                  887,303                                    15.4

1920                                   5,759,394                                  992,273                                    20.8

1910                                   4,767,121                                  609,576                                    14.7

1900                                   4,157,545                                  485,216                                    13.2

 

1890                                   3,672,329                                  474,267                                    14.8

1880                                   3,198,062                                  532,802                                    20.0

1870                                   2,665,260                                  325,749                                    13.9

1860                                   2,339,511                                  359,182                                    18.1

1850                                   1,980,329                                  460,862                                    30.3

 

1840                                   1,519,467                                  581,564                                    62.0

1830                                   937,903                                      356,469                                    61.3

1820                                   581,434                                      350,674                                    152.0

1810                                   230,760                                      .........          ......

Ohio's population decline has taken another epoch-making

turn in that, for the first time in the State's history, more people

have left Ohio than have come into it. This is shown by the fact

that the excess of births over deaths during the 1930's was greater

than the increase in the State's population. The excess of births

 

1  All Ohio population figures for the first four tables are taken from the pamphlet,

U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 16th Census of the United

States, 1940, Population, First Series, Number of Inhabitants Ohio (United States

Government Printing Office, Washington, 1941).

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