People are not "moving out of Pittsburgh" anymore than most U.S. cities (Carnegie: home, school)

[Humanoid]

"Because CMU." The second point I made.

You edited your post. Regardless, the vast majority of the students that come to the city to study (from outside of the city) leave the city when finished. After all if this wasn't the case Pittsburgh population would significantly increase. I've seen no conclusive data that shows that students are staying in the Pittsburgh area more than they use to, if you have such data link it.

But none of this matters from Google's point of view and they know it. Google is a highly desirable place to work and they can draw people from around the global regardless of location (Within...reason of course). Hence Google's choice to open an office in Pittsburgh had nothing to do with whether students are staying in the city or not.

[Katarina Witt]

I posted a link some time ago, which I wouldn't be able to find without doing a very time-consuming search, that showed that CMU students leave Pgh in larger numbers than students at the other colleges. Humanoid is right; it's not like Google moved its headquarters to Pittsburgh. It has a similar office in Boulder, Colorado, another college town with a lot of high-tech stuff going on (University of Colorado).

Edit: I tried a search, and couldn't find it. I'm giving up. Maybe I'll stumble across it sometime.

[dugdogmaster]

Ok, ok, I stand corrected. However, there isn't large mass exoduses taking place as in generations past, so what's the explanation for it then?

[Katarina Witt]

Some will say it's deaths > births, which accounts for about 1/2 the population decrease. The reason for the other half is not clear, but my educated guess is that it's that nasty four letter word: jobs. There simply are more jobs other places.

[namelessinpitt]

Originally Posted by Humanoid

You edited your post. Regardless, the vast majority of the students that come to the city to study (from outside of the city) leave the city when finished. After all if this wasn't the case Pittsburgh population would significantly increase. I've seen no conclusive data that shows that students are staying in the Pittsburgh area more than they use to, if you have such data link it.

But none of this matters from Google's point of view and they know it. Google is a highly desirable place to work and they can draw people from around the global regardless of location (Within...reason of course). Hence Google's choice to open an office in Pittsburgh had nothing to do with whether students are staying in the city or not.

I don't know if college kids stay or not, most of my friends from out of state moved back to wherever they came from. But I can tell you that Carson street is DEAD in the summer when school's out. We were cruising around last night and there was barely anyone walking around. Southside had a cool band playing outside though, that ended at eleven.

[BrianTH]

I'm not aware of any population stats tracking just graduating college students (although I would love to see some). However, here is some data indicating that between 2003 and 2005, the population of people in the City of Pittsburgh proper aged 20-24 rose about 18.2%. There are lots of possible explanations for that, but I think one reasonable possibility is that the City has begun to retain more of the people graduating from colleges in the City.

[sunrico90]

Normally the industrial diversification can assist in limiting the exodus of individuals from an area.

What are the top 5 industries in Pittsburgh?

Are the industries adjusting to todays changes?

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I'm not aware of any population stats tracking just graduating college students (although I would love to see some). However, here is some data indicating that between 2003 and 2005, the population of people in the City of Pittsburgh proper aged 20-24 rose about 18.2%. There are lots of possible explanations for that, but I think one reasonable possibility is that the City has begun to retain more of the people graduating from colleges in the City.

Here you go!

Originally Posted by Snaily

I'm not, I've looked at the data too. The youth population says fairly constant year to year. Yet there are many universities in the city. So either two things are happening 1.) The students are in general leaving the city when they graduate. 2.) Students are staying but they are offset by non-students.
Also, my comments about CMU aren't just based on my experience. Even their alumni data shows that only 19% stay in the city, many of that 19% are most likely from the area in the first place (Also, its undergrad + grad data). Pitt's alumni data will probably be better, but that is because more locals go to pitt.
The problem is other areas attract people from all over the world, but Pittsburgh doesn't except in the case of the medical industry. Maybe things will change, but if everyone in Pittsburgh deneies there is a problem they wont. Instead the city will keep getting its butt kicked by other regions.

When I made my comment I had students in my mind. And I think the data supports what I'm saying, that the students from out of the area leave the area when they are done.

They are trying, the problem is that the local government is pretty bad. For example instead of fixing the city they are spending millions to build a new arena for the penguins so that they'll stay in the city. So now all the sports teams here will have great arenas/stadiums while there are thousands of boarded up homes that aren't being cleaned up. This is also how they are fixing it, they make commercials like this and show them daily:


YouTube - WPXI Stand Up

If the commercial wasn't sad enough its actually a rip from a detroit commercial used in the 70's:


YouTube - Stand Up and Tell 'em You're From Detroit

That said, there are certainly worse areas you can live than Pittsburgh.

Originally Posted by claremarie

There was an article in the Wall Street Journal the other day about PA's status as a student importer and graduate exporter -- not just Pittsburgh, but the entier state -- and what can be done about the mass exodus of PA-educated college graduates. The bottom line seems to be that unless there are good jobs available, the state cannot expect to keep the graduates of its colleges and universities from taking their degrees and settling elsewhere.

Originally Posted by Katiana

Well, I was in Pittsburgh this weekend and I read an article about how only a small percentage of medical students stay in Pittsburgh once they are done with their education. Now there is some proposal to forgive 10% of medical student loans per year of practice in PA.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Katiana

Here you go!

Thanks, but unless I am missing it none of those posts contained a link to statistics on graduating college students specifically in Pittsburgh. The closest I guess was the claim about CMU alumni, but as the poster noted it wasn't just college students, and I can't tell when that figure came from, and in any event you would also need to know how many CMU students came from Pittsburgh to know if that 19% retention rate represented a net loss or gain.

[Katarina Witt]

This is as close as it gets:

Also, my comments about CMU aren't just based on my experience. Even their alumni data shows that only 19% stay in the city, many of that 19% are most likely from the area in the first place (Also, its undergrad + grad data).

It is just college students, both graduate and undergrad. The data presumably came from CMU, as the poster refers to their alumni data.