On The Decline: The Most Unproductive Cities In America
On The Decline: The Most Unproductive Cities In America (Did Your City Make The List?)
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24/7 Wall St. has produced a list to show which cities in the U.S. are on the decline with a lack of population and production.
These cities have experienced a large dip in financial income and productivity leaving it facing large numbers of unemployment and poverty.
Although many cities like Charlotte and Atlanta continue to grow, numbers show that these once leading cities have sadly lost a number of people in its population and culture.
Peep the page #’s below to see if your city made the list…
7. Rochester, NY
Population: 207,294
Population Change 2000-2009: -12,180
Population Percent Change 2000-2009: -5.55%
Home Vacancy: 15.3%
Rochester has yet to produce an important replacement industry to drive up the population, and even the success in the 1990’s of Xerox has faded. Between 1950 and 2000, Rochester lost 34% of its population.
6. Pittsburgh, PA
Population: 311,647
Population Change 2000-2009: -22,056
Population Percent Change 2000-2009: -6.61%
Home Vacancy: 14.1%
In the past few decades, the city changed to a technology-based economy, but the population is still on the decline. Since 1950, Pittsburgh’s population has declined by more than 50%.
5. Dayton, OH
Population: 153,843
Population Change 2000-2009: -11,961
Population Percent Change 2000-2009: -7.21%
Home Vacancy: 18.9%
Through the first half of the 20th century, Dayton had one of the healthiest manufacturing industries. It had more GM autoworkers than any city outside of Michigan during World War II. In the past 50 years, Mead has merged with West Virginia Paper and moved to Richmond, and GM has closed one plant after another in the city.
4. Buffalo, NY
Population: 270,240
Population Change 2000-2009: -21,970
Population Percent Change 2000-2009: -7.52%
Home Vacancy: 17.2%
The collapse of the canal and improvements in the energy industry which made Niagara Falls less important led to the mass migration from the city which continues to this day. In the 1970′s alone, Buffalo lost more than 100,000 residents, roughly a third of its current population.
3. Cleveland, OH
Population: 431,369
Population Change 2000-2009: -45,205
Population Percent Change 2000-2009: -9.49%
Home Vacancy: 17.5%
The decline of industrial American has hit the city particularly hard, and poverty, a default on municipal debt in the 70′s, and pollution have earned the city the nickname “the mistake on the lake.” In 1948, the city had over 910,000 people; it now has less than half of that.
2. Flint, MI
Population: 111,475
Population Change 2000-2009: -13,266
Population Percent Change 2000-2009: -10.63%
Home Vacancy: 18%
Since the American auto industry began its decline in the 1980′s, Flint has consistently lost at least 10% of its population each decade. Massive layoffs and plant closings have devastated the city, and unemployment rates remain well into the double digits.
1. New Orleans, LA
Population: 354,850
Population Change 2000-2009: -128,813
Population Percent Change 2000-2009: -26.63%
Home Vacancy: 21.5%
The period of widespread homelessness, severe crime, and slow recovery has left the city as a shadow of its former self. While people are trickling back into the city, many will likely never return, and the city has lost more than a quarter of its population in just ten years.
