Shrinking cities in the United States
The following cities in the United States have lost at least 20 percent of their population, from a peak of over 100,000, since 1950.
Geography
A patchwork of cities across the northern United States, because of their vibrant industrial economies, were referred to collectively as "the Foundry of the Nation". These are also referred to as the Manufacturing Belt or the Factory Belt. This includes most of the cities of the Midwest out to the Mississippi River, and many of those in the New England and Mid-Atlantic states, particularly those away from the Eastern Seaboard. After World War II, the cities in the area among the nation's 100 largest in the middle-20th century had population that had fallen most by the century's end.
At the center lies an area stretching from northern Indiana and southern Michigan in the west to Upstate New York in the east, where local tax revenues still rely more heavily on manufacturing than on any other sector (by far the largest contiguous area of the U.S. where this is the case). At or near the periphery are nine of the nation's largest metropolitan areas—Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, St Louis, Cincinnati, Detroit, Milwaukee, New York City, and Chicago— parts of which fall squarely within the Rust Belt while their core cities are not always considered as such.
Shrinking cities
City |
1950 population |
Peak population (year) |
2010 population |
Decline from peak |
Percent decline from peak population |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Akron, Ohio |
(1960) |
}} |
| 264605 | 1 }} |
|||
Albany, New York |
(1950) |
}} |
| 134995 | 1 }} |
2.3% increase from 2000. |
||
Baltimore, Maryland |
(1950) |
}} |
| 949708 | 1 }} |
|||
Birmingham, Alabama |
(1950) |
}} |
| 340887 | 1 }} |
|||
Boston, Massachusetts |
(1950) |
}} |
| 801444 | 1 }} |
4.8% increase from 2000. |
||
Buffalo, New York |
(1950) |
}} |
| 580132 | 1 }} |
|||
Camden, New Jersey |
(1950) |
}} |
| 124555 | 1 }} |
|||
Canton, Ohio |
(1950) |
}} |
| 116912 | 1 }} |
|||
Chicago, Illinois |
(1950) |
}} |
| 3620962 | 1 }} |
|||
Cincinnati, Ohio |
(1950) |
}} |
| 503998 | 1 }} |
|||
Cleveland, Ohio |
(1950) |
}} |
| 914808 | 1 }} |
|||
Dayton, Ohio |
(1960) |
}} |
| 262332 | 1 }} |
|||
Detroit, Michigan |
(1950) |
}} |
| 1849568 | 1 }} |
|||
Erie, Pennsylvania |
(1960) |
}} |
| 138440 | 1 }} |
|||
Flint, Michigan |
(1960) |
}} |
| 196940 | 1 }} |
|||
Gary, Indiana |
(1960) |
}} |
| 178320 | 1 }} |
|||
Hammond, Indiana |
(1960) |
}} |
| 111698 | 1 }} |
|||
Hartford, Connecticut |
(1950) |
}} |
| 177397 | 1 }} |
2.0% increase from 2000. |
||
Jersey City, New Jersey |
(1930) |
}} |
| 316715 | 1 }} |
3.1% increase from 2000. |
||
Minneapolis, Minnesota |
(1950) |
}} |
| 521718 | 1 }} |
|||
Newark, New Jersey |
(1930) |
}} |
| 442337 | 1 }} |
1.3% increase from 2000. |
||
New Haven, Connecticut |
(1950) |
}} |
| 164443 | 1 }} |
5.0% increase from 2000. |
||
New Orleans, Louisiana |
(1960) |
}} |
| 627525 | 1 }} |
2.1% increase from 2008 Census Bureau estimate; first after Hurricane Katrina. |
||
Niagara Falls, New York |
(1960) |
}} |
| 102394 | 1 }} |
|||
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
(1950) |
}} |
| 2071605 | 1 }} |
0.6% increase from 2000. |
||
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
(1950) |
}} |
| 676806 | 1 }} |
|||
Providence, Rhode Island |
(1930) |
}} |
| 252981 | 1 }} |
2.5% increase from 2000. |
||
Reading, Pennsylvania |
(1930) |
}} |
| 111171 | 1 }} |
8.5% increase from 2000. |
||
Rochester, New York |
(1950) |
}} |
| 332488 | 1 }} |
|||
Scranton, Pennsylvania |
(1930) |
}} |
| 143333 | 1 }} |
|||
South Bend, Indiana |
(1960) |
}} |
| 132445 | 1 }} |
|||
St. Louis, Missouri |
(1950) |
}} |
| 856796 | 1 }} |
|||
Syracuse, New York |
(1950) |
}} |
| 220583 | 1 }} |
|||
Toledo, Ohio |
(1970) |
}} |
| 383818 | 1 }} |
|||
Trenton, New Jersey |
(1950) |
}} |
| 128009 | 1 }} |
|||
Utica, New York |
(1930) |
}} |
| 101740 | 1 }} |
2.6% increase from 2000. |
||
Washington, D.C. |
(1950) |
}} |
| 802718 | 1 }} |
5.2% increase from 2000. |
||
Youngstown, Ohio |
(1930) |
}} |
| 170002 | 1 }} |
See also
- Rust Belt
- United States cities by crime rate
International:
- List of Canadian municipalities having experienced population decreases