Population Profile

The cities of Dayton and Cincinnati have grown into one another in a rush of development, which residents complain is wiping out farmland and overtaxing water, traffic, and school systems.4/ Growth has been particularly dramatic in Ohio’s fastest growing county, Warren County just north of Columbus, which grew 64 percent between 1990 and 2000.5/

Ohio’s foreign-born population increased 31 percent during the 1990s. Between 1990 and 2000, Ohio gained 80,000 immigrants.

Foreign-Born Population 

Ohio’s foreign-born population increased by 22.6 percent between 2000 and 2006. During that period Ohio gained over 76,000 immigrants, bringing the total number of foreign-born residents in the state to over 416,000.

Environmental and Quality of Life Profile

Water:

Between 2000 and 2006, Ohio’s foreign-born population increased by 21.5 percentOhio communities are already in competition for water supplies.^6/That compares with a 0.5 percent increase in the native-born population and that includes the children born to immigrants. When the U.S-born children of immigrants are included, immigration accounts for all of the state’s overall growth during that time.^7/By 2050 the state’s population is expected to rise from 11.5 million in 2006 to over 12.6 million.^8/Ohio has a daily, per-capita water demand of 129.5 gallons.^9/This means that by 2050 public water usage will have increased by 142.5 million gallons each day.

Traffic: As population growth put more traffic on the roads, the average commute for Ohio residents increased eleven percent during the 1990s, from 21 minutes in 1990 to 25.1 in 2005. 10/, 11/  36% of Ohio's major urban roads are congested. 25% of Ohio's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition, and vehicle travel on Ohio's highways increased 25% from 1990 to 2003. Driving on roads in need of repair costs Ohio motorists $1.6 billion a year in extra vehicle repairs and operating costs --- $203 per motorist. 12/

Congestion in the Akron-Canton area costs commuters $219 per person per year in excess fuel and lost time, $687 per person per year Cincinnati,  $204 per person per year in Cleveland, $514 per person in Columbus, $261 per person per year in Dayton, and $233 per person Toledo. 13 In the Cincinnati, OH,-Kentucky-Indiana area travelers experience an annual delay of 30 hours, and in the  Columbus are travelers experience an annual 29 hour delay. The annual delay in Cleveland is 10 hours, 12 hours in Akron, and 12 hours in Dayton. 14/ 10 percent of commutes in Ohio experience a commute that is 45 minutes or longer. 15/

Traffic congestion amounts to approximately 250 million hours of lost time for Ohio motorists and will increase to nearly 460 million hours of delay by 2020. This lost productivity costs Ohio businesses more than $500 million annually and will increase to more than $915 million by 2030. 16/ Cincinnati area planners have estimated that it will cost between $815 million and $1 billion to expand existing transportation routes to handle the 30 percent increase in traffic expected by 2030. 17/ In 2002, 25 percent of residents of Columbus listed traffic congestion as their number one concern about the area; it was the first time traffic had surpassed crime as the top concern. 18/

Disappearing open space: Each year, Ohio loses 73,000 acres of open space and farmland due to development. 19/ Ohio’s available farmland decreased twelve percent between 1982 and 1997, from 15.2 million to 13.6 million acres, and its pasture land decreased 40 percent, from 2.8 million acres to 2 million acres. Ohio ranked eighth in the nation in the amount of land that was converted to urban uses between 1992 and 1997. In that same period, Ohio ranked second out of all states in acreage of prime agricultural land converted to urban uses./20 Ohio’s original wetlands areas have declined from about five million acres to less than half a million acres—a loss of 90 percent. 21/

Sprawl: A study of urban sprawl between 1970 and 1990 that calculated the impact of population increase and per capita land use found that 110.4 square miles of additional land were consumed by urban sprawl in the Columbus metropolitan area, and 46.5 percent of that sprawl was attributable to population increase. In the Cincinnati metro area, which crosses into Kentucky, sprawl consumed an additional 176.6 square miles and population increase accounted for 20.8 percent of the increase. 22/

Crowded housing: In 2005 over 53,000 Ohio households are defined by housing authorities as crowded or severely crowded. 23/ Studies show that a rise in crowded housing often correlates with an increase in the number of foreign-born. 24/, 25/

Air pollution:  In 2000, the power plants used to support Ohio’s population produced 375,000 tons of nitrous oxide, the equivalent of the annual emissions from 19 million cars. 26/  The American Lung Association gave Ohio a grade of “F” for all by two of its 88 counties. 27/

Poverty: In 2005 15.8 percent of immigrants in Ohio had incomes below the poverty level, an increase of 35.3 percent since 2000. Among non-citizen immigrants, the rate climbs to 21.4 percent. 28/ According to local economic experts, large-scale immigration of low-skilled workers has kept down the median income and depressed wages in Ohio. 29/ Ohio is now lagging behind the rest of the Great Lakes region in income and poverty indicators. 30/

Education: Between 2000 and 2006 Ohio’s K-12 student enrollment increased by over 3,000 students. 31/, 32/ Ohio’s student-teacher ratio of 15.6 currently ranks 33^rd in the U.S. 33/

The Cincinnati school district already is using more than 130 temporary trailer classrooms and is adding more in 2003 because of overcrowding. 34/ In Columbus, one quarter of all schools are overcrowded. 35/ In Hilliard, some classes meet daily in staff dining rooms and study halls are being held in gyms. 36/

Solid Waste: Ohio generates 1.42 tons of solid waste per capita. 37/

 Endnotes:

1. FAIR estimate based on the 2006 Current Population Survey.
2. "Estimates of the Unauthorized Migrant Population for States based on the March 2005 CPS", Pew Hispanic Center.
3. Martin, Jack. “Breaking the Piggy Bank: How Illegal Immigration is Sending Schools into the Red,” A Report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
4. Lynn Hulsey and Lawrence Budd, “Rush to the Middle: Growth has Joined Dayton and Cincinnati into One City,” Dayton Daily News, October 28, 2001.
   5. Joann Rouse, “Warren County Continues Growth,” Dayton Daily News, February 24, 2002.
5. Joann Rouse, op.cit.
6. U.S. Census Bureau 2006.
7. Jack Martin. “Issue Brief: Estimation of Foreign Born Birthrate.” FAIR. 2008.
8. Jack Martin and Stanley Fogel. “Projecting the U.S. Population to 2050.” FAIR. March 2006.
9. U.S. Geological Survey 2000
10. Selected Economic Characteristics: 2005 Data Set - 2005 American Community Survey, American Fact Finder, U.S. Census Bureau.
11. Ibid
12. "The 2005 Urban Mobility Report", Texas Transportation Institute.
13. “Economic Impacts for Ohio,” Ohio Department of Transportation web site, February 12, 2003
14. “Highway Planners Address Cincinnati-area Bottleneck,” Associated Press, April 29, 2003.
15. “Curing Myopia; Regional Planning a Must for Central Ohio,” Columbus Dispatch, April 28, 2002.
16. “State Rankings by Acreage and Rate of Non-federal Land Developed,” Natural Resources Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture.
17. “Growth and Change at the Rural-Urban Interface: An Overview of Ohio’s Changing Population and Land Use,” The Exurban Change Project, Ohio State University, March 2003.
18. “A History of Ohio Wetlands,” Ohio Department of Natural Resources website.
19. Beck, Roy and Leon Kolankiewicz, “Weighing Sprawl Factors in Large U.S. Cities,” NumbersUSA, March 2001.
20. “Ohio State Factsheet,” Migration Information Source, Migration Policy Institute.
21. Randy Capps, “Hardship among Children of Immigrants: Findings from the 1999 National Survey of America’s Families,” Urban Institute, 2001.
22. Haya El Nasser, “U.S. Neighborhoods Grow More Crowded,” USA Today, July 7, 2002.
23. Dennis Fiely, “Evidence Building for Deadly Effects of Air Pollution,” Columbus Dispatch, June 17, 2002.
24. “State of the Air 2005: Ohio”, American Lung Association.
25. “Ohio State Factsheet,” Migration Information Source, Migration Policy Institute.
26. Lornet Turnbull, “1990s Boom a Bust for Some,” Columbus Dispatch, September 3, 2001.
27. Dave Davis, “Back of the Pack; Ohio Trails Region in Income, Education,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 7, 2002.
28. "Overview of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools and Districts: School Year 1999-2000," National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education.
29. "Public Elementary and Secondary School Student Enrollment, High School Completions, and Staff From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2005-06', National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, June 2007.
30. Projections of Education Statistics to 2015, National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education.
31. Jennifer Mrozowski, “Four Schools May Add Trailers,” Cincinnati Enquirer, March 8, 2003.
32. “Condition of Columbus Schools,” KidsOhio.org, Fall 2002.
33. “Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: 1990-2000,” Office of Policy Planning, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, January 2003.
34. Report Card for America's Infrastructure 2005," American Society of Civil Engineers.