Growth and Change: Population Change in Ohio and It's Rural-Urban Interface

In 2003, the OSU Exurban Change and Swank programs produced a policy brief documenting Ohio population movements and land use patterns for the 1990s. With the new Strickland administration’s TURNAROUND Ohio plan, we believe this is an excellent opportunity to revisit how the state is currently faring and make comparisons to the latter 1990s, when the State’s prospects seemed more secure. We divide the discussion into multiple topics, first moving from a state-level perspective to metropolitan/non-metropolitan distinctions, and then examining some broader trends at the rural-urban interface. Finally, we disaggregate the data to present local patterns of evolving communities in Ohio.