Many Ohio counties are seeing declining populations, but Columbus has become a place millennials want to call home.
According to a SmartAsset study, millions of millennials are moving to larger cities from areas within their home state. The site ranked the 271 largest U.S. cities by the number of people aged 25-44, who recently moved there, evaluating their appeal to millennials.
Data from the report comes from a U.S. Census Bureau 2023 survey. Here’s a breakdown of the report, plus a look at where Columbus landed on the list.
The downtown skyline of Columbus, Ohio as seen from the south side near Livingston Ave. and Grant St. as seen November 7, 2024.
More than 75,000 Millennials moved to Columbus in 2023, good for No. 13 ranking
Columbus ranked No. 29 in the study in terms of percentage of the population (8.42%). However, the capital city ranked even higher for the number of millennials moving in.
More than 75,000 people ages 25–44 moved to Columbus in 2023, according to the Smart Asset report, good for No. 13 overall. The city was behind No. 12 Denver (more than 83,000 millennial move-ins) but ahead of metropolises such as San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Boston and Portland.
Currently, a little more than 34% of Columbus’ population are millennials, according to data cited in the SmartAsset study.
Cleveland (No. 52) and Cincinnati (No. 56) both had more than 21,000 millennial move-ins in 2023, per SmartAsset.
Is Ohio’s population decreasing or increasing?
This report by SmartAsset comes as the Buckeye State’s population is estimated to shrink. According to survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau, an estimated 184,281 people left the state in 2023.
According to a study from the Ohio Department of Development, Ohio’s long-term projections show the state’s population will shrink by roughly 5.7% by 2025, or 675,552 residents.
RELATED: Did Ohio’s population grow last year? What we know
Where are millennials moving in the U.S.? Top 5 cities
The following are the top cities that millennials moved to in 2023 (based on percentage of the total population), according to the Smart Asset report:
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Alexandria, Virginia (12.67% of the population were new millennial transplants)
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Cambridge, Massachusetts (12.15% of population)
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Denver, Colorado (11.78% of population)
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Sandy Springs, Georgia (11.63% of population)
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Seattle, Washington (11.51% of population)
New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Austin and San Antonio top the list for the raw total of millennial move-ins; each had more than 100,000 transplants in 2023.
These cities were least desirable to millennials
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Jurupa Valley, California (2.35% of population)
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Santa Ana, California (2.58% of population)
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Elk Grove, California (2.6% of population)
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San Bernardino, California (2.78% of population)
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Oxnard, California (2.78% of population)
Alex Groth contributed to reporting
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 1 Ohio city a popular moving destination for millennials, report finds