Ohio Population Research

The Ohio population is projected to remain stagnant over the next several decades. The Ohio Development Services Agency estimates that Ohio’s population will grow by just .009% between 2020 and 2040, and then start to gradually decline. In contrast, the US population is projected to grow by 12% between 2020 and 2040, and continue growing.

Looking back, between April 2010 and July 2018, Ohio’s population grew by 1.3%, while the US population grew by 6% during the same time period. The largest increases occurred in Utah (14.4%) and Texas (14.1%) during that 8 year span. In 2018, Nevada and Idaho were the fastest growing states, each with an annual growth rate of 2.1%.

• census.gov/quickfacts/
• census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2018/estimates-national-state.html

The proportions are very similar: In 2020, it is projected that 17% of people in the US will be age 65 and older, and 17.4 % of Ohioans will be 65 and older. The proportion increases to 21% by 2030, when just over 1 in 5 Ohioans, and Americans, will be age 65 and older.

Use the Interactive Data Center to find the answer to this, and many other, questions you may have about Ohio’s changing population.

For example, in the Interactive Data Center, select “Interactive Maps”, then choose your age group(s) and year of interest. Select the data tab, and it will show a list of Ohio counties with their proportion of older adults. You can download the map data to sort and create additional charts.

Population Projections

The population data and projections for 2010 – 2050 are from Ohio Development Services Agency.

These data contain updated population projections, by age and sex, for the state of Ohio and its 88 counties, for five-year intervals through the year 2050. This projection series was produced to align the Ohio projections with the most recent population estimates issued by the U.S. Census Bureau and with the demographic changes that occurred between 2010 and 2015, and accounts for individuals in group quarters housing (such as college dormitories and correctional facilities). Please find more details at the Ohio Development Services Agency research website

Ohio Development Services Agency, Office of Research. 2018. Population Projections: Ohio and Counties by Sex – 2015 to 2040 (April 2018). Available at development.ohio.gov/reports/reports_pop_proj_map.htm

State- and county-level population characteristics

The state and county reports, as well as socio-economic indicators portion of the interactive data center, rely on census data aggregated at the state and county levels. 2015 data is a five-year average of 2013-2017 data provided courtesy of IPUMS National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS), University of Minnesota, nhgis.org.

Please see the Ohio Development Services Agency Population Projections Methodology for detailed information.

Many of Ohio's counties have relatively small population sizes. Over half of the counties in Ohio have fewer than 65,000 people (the threshold for single-year representative data). To have a large enough sample size to give accurate estimates at the county-level requires multiple years of data collection. The data labelled 2013-2017 is an average of data collected between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2017. For simplicity, in the county reports, we refer to this as 2015 data, but it is actually collected during this five-year period. See the ACS website for more details.

The Interactive Data Center allows users to interact with and visualize Ohio’s population data, including current and projected population size for different age groups, population pyramids, interactive map to visualize the change in proportion of older adults, and charts to show the percentage of the population with a disability (difficulty). With the Interactive Data Center, you choose the time period, sex, and age group of interest.

In the top red bar, select your topic of interest: Population size, Projections, Interactive Maps, Difficulties, or Social Indicators (coming soon).

Refine your selections in the left-hand bar: View data for the entire state, or a specific county. Choose which sex and age group you’d like to see. You can even download the data to analyze it on your own.

Visualizations automatically update when you make a data selection. Explore plots, data, and maps by clicking through the tabs.

These data measure difficulty and functional impairment to identify individuals who may experience a disability. There are six questions related to functional limitation:

• Hearing difficulty: deaf or having serious difficulty hearing (all ages)
• Vision difficulty: blind or having serious difficulty seeing, even when wearing glasses (all ages)
• Cognitive difficulty: because of a physical, mental, or emotional problem, having difficulty remembering, concentrating, or making decisions (ages 5+)
• Ambulatory (mobility) difficulty: having serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs (ages 5+)
• Self-care difficulty: having difficulty bathing or dressing (ages 5+)
• Independent living difficulty: because of a physical, mental, or emotional problem, having difficulty doing errands alone such as visiting a doctor’s office or shopping (ages 18+)

The charts and tables in the Interactive Data Center show the percentage of people in each age group who experience a given difficulty. Note that individuals may have more than one difficulty, and therefore would appear in multiple categories. For example, if a person has both a hearing and vision difficulty, they would be counted in each of these categories. Therefore, it is not possible to sum the difficulty data to approximate the number of persons with a disability. Doing so would result in inflated numbers, as individuals would be counted multiple times.

The data come from the American Community Survey: Integrated Public Use Microdata Sample National Historical Geographic Information Systems (IPUMS NHGIS) 2013-2017. nhgis.org

Yes! Each topic area has a download option. Look for the red “Download data” button on the left-hand side. Data is available in comma separated values (CSV) format.

Yes! If you’re looking for high-resolution handouts, these are available in PDF format on the Map Downloads or State and County Reports pages of this website.

If you would like to print or save a graphic or plot from the Interactive Data Center, you can right-click the image and save it to your computer. Images are available in PNG format.