Ohio's population growth continues to slow down

The state's population is expected to start shrinking in 2020.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Ohio's minimal growth rate continues to slow, according to new census figures that show the state added the fewest number of residents last year since 2000.
Ohio gained 7,321 people in 2005, not even enough to fill many minor league baseball stadiums, the government's population estimates show. That amounts to a 0.06 percent growth rate, also the lowest since the 2000 census when the state grew just under 1 percent.
Even during the Great Depression in the 1930s, the state grew at approximately twice the rate it did last year.
Reasons
"It's the economy and jobs," said Mark Salling, a Cleveland State University demographer.
Although the economy has improved, it still can't compete with the strength of the state's manufacturing past, Salling said.
Only Massachusetts grew more slowly last year, adding just 3,800 residents for a growth rate slightly under 0.06 percent. Four other states, including hurricane-battered Louisiana, lost population.
Although Ohio births outstripped deaths and the state gained an additional 14,000 people through international migration, the state lost 48,000 residents as people moved to other states.
Not coming back
Amanda Meilinger, a Cleveland-area native, left the state for Atlanta three years ago and says there's no way she'd return.
Meilinger, 27, went to Ohio University and received a sports business degree, then struggled for more than a year to find a job in her field, looking both in Cleveland and Columbus. Eventually she broadened her search to other industries, but still had no luck.
After visiting friends in Atlanta in the spring of 2003 she decided to relocate and found a job with a golf equipment manufacturer within two months.
The combination of a robust economy and nice weather sold her, she said.
"Here I have no worries of company doors closing, and if for some reason that would happen, there are plenty of opportunities around every corner," Meilinger said Thursday. "Coming back to Ohio would mean closing the door to that."
Georgia gained 231,388 residents last year, the fourth-fastest growing state in the country.
Shrinking
Recent census figures predict that in 2020 Ohio will begin shrinking. Ohio's slow growth resulted in the loss of one congressional seat in 2002 and the possible loss of another in 2012.
Although the economy has rebounded slightly, the state's October unemployment rate of 5.1 percent was still well above the national rate of 4.4 percent. The state lost about 167,000 jobs from July 2000 to July of this year.
Addressing the problem
Gov. Bob Taft, a Republican, tried to address Ohio's woes by overhauling the tax code to make it more competitive with other states and creating a grant program to attract and retain high-tech research and industry.
Over time, those efforts will improve things, Taft spokesman Mark Rickel said.
"Ohio will continue to have significant strengths," Rickel said. "We just need to build on that."
Incoming Gov.-elect Ted Strickland, a Democrat, will focus on improving access to education to combat the slow growth, spokesman Keith Dailey said.
Strickland's strategy "recognizes the need to make sure Ohioans have the best educated work force possible, because in the future jobs will go where the work force is best educated," Dailey said.