Is Ohio Overpopulated? (Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati: house, living in, linear)

[Buckguy99]

There seem to be many articles in our newspapers that moan about Ohio's cities losing people, but does that really matter? We already have one of the biggest populations in the country (11.5 million; comparable to some European nations) and we have never lost population. Even if we did, would it really matter? Many people like living in smaller cities and being in a place where you know your neighbors. In some of the newer cities out West you hardly ever find locals because there are so many immigrants and migrants.

Just for comparison, Ireland lost 2/3's of its population during the potato famine. So these articles that say that our cities are anemic are overblown.

[cali3448893]

I dont think it would matter, less people more jobs. Also we have 3 midsized cities if we combine them all that city would be around the size of Houston or Chicago.

[Scott SW Ohio]

I think "overpopulated" is a function of how people live. We may indeed be pushing the limits of the suburban/exurban commuter model pretty soon. On the other hand, if there were jobs for them and with the right new infrastructure I think the City of Cincinnati could accommodate a lot more residents, and I'd guess the same is true of the other major cities in Ohio who have lost population density over the last few decades.

[bjimmy24]

Overpopulated? We could fit another 400,000 in Cleveland alone.

[no1brownsfan]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

Overpopulated? We could fit another 400,000 in Cleveland alone.

Yet we rank 7th in population. And we're on the smaller end land wise.

[zerhacke]

Ohio has a population density of 282/SqMile. That's nowhere near overpopulated unless you absolutely, positively, cannot stand seeing someone else's house from your front porch.

We're on par with California in terms of population density, and there are hundreds of areas in California where no humans live for a dozen miles in any linear direction. Whereas California has many times the population we have they have many times the square mileage of land we have and in the end you are left with vast swaths of land without a soul on them.

Those who think Ohio is overpopulated need to get out of the city on occasion. There are so many places that it cannot be named that have no person within a mile of another person. Just because Cleveland, Columbus, and other large-ish areas of Ohio have lots of buildings near each other does not mean that most of the state does. Most of the state is pretty empty.

Take a look at a map of population density sometime. Chances are that if you don't live in the larger cities in Ohio, you are lucky to even have neighbors. For example, there are multiple places on an Ohio population density map that shows ZERO people per square mile.

A square mile should be more than enough land for a person to live on.

[Natural510]

Ohio is underpopulated. There's a large percentage of vacant buildings & lots in its cities (even Columbus) which will hopefully be renovated/redeveloped in the future to increase urban density, while the rest of the state is forest & farmland. I used to get a "po-dunk" feeling everytime I'd venture outside the city here, but instead it's a good feeling to know there's so much nature left in the country which will not be destroyed or developed anytime in the near future.

[natininja]

If the state of Ohio had the population density of Manhattan, it would be home to 3,127,485,075 people. Which is about 10 times as many people as there are in the entire country. Just throwing that out there.

Considering how many abandoned buildings there are in the state, and how many empty lots there are where buildings once stood, I'd say we could fit a lot more people. Millions more, if we build a little taller in some locations (like on surface parking lots in our downtowns).

What we should do is concentrate on building up or filling in gaps within developed areas, rather than building further out onto farmland unnecessarily.

[dxdtdemon]

Bangladesh has 1.5 times the land area of Ohio (in their dry season) and around 13 times the population. Given that they have much less land area during monsoon season, and it's during then that they are the world model for overcrowding, I think we can safely conclude that Ohio is not overpopulated.

[zerhacke]

Originally Posted by natininja

If the state of Ohio had the population density of Manhattan, it would be home to 3,127,485,075 people. Which is about 10 times as many people as there are in the entire country. Just throwing that out there.

Excellent statistic, but it's a bit unfair to compare an entire state to the smallest Borough of a single city.