:owned:
Less traffic in the tunnels :kekegay:
http://www.timesonline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18170588&BRD=2305&PAG=461&dept_id=478569&rfi=6
Only one other metropolitan area in the United States lost more population than the Pittsburgh area between 2000 and 2006.
And we didn’t have to cope with Hurricane Katrina to get to our spot on the list.
According to figures released today by the U.S. Census Bureau, the Pittsburgh metro area - defined by the bureau as Beaver, Allegheny, Butler, Fayette, Armstrong, Washington and Westmoreland counties - lost 60,309 residents between 2000 and 2006. Only the New Orleans area - which had been growing until Katrina struck on Aug. 29, 2005 - lost more, with nearly 300,000 people leaving between 2005 and 2006 alone.
The metropolitan-area population figures are an annual estimate taken by the Census Bureau on July 1 of each year. They are compared with the area’s official population count taken in the 2000 Census.
Pittsburgh’s Rust Belt neighbors haven’t been faring well either. Among the nearby metropolitan areas, only Morgantown, W.Va., increased its population between 2000 and 2006.
Advertisement
The rest - Youngstown, Ohio; Weirton, W.Va.; and Wheeling, W.Va. - all lost population, with the Youngstown, Cleveland and Buffalo areas joining Pittsburgh among the 10 biggest losers in the nation.
Where is population growing? In the West and South, the bureau said. Only one Midwestern area - Sioux Falls, S.D. - cracked the list of the 50 fastest-growing areas in the country, and the York/Hanover area in south-central Pennsylvania was the lone Northeastern area to make the top 100.
Michael Pound can be reached online at mpound@timesonline.com.
Close to home
Pittsburgh and nearby metropolitan areas; numeric and percentage changes:
Pittsburgh, lost 60,309, or 2.5 percent.
Youngstown/Warren/Boardman (Ohio, Pa.), lost 16,025, or 2.7 percent.
Weirton-Steubenville (W.Va., Ohio), lost 6,840, or 5.2 percent.
Wheeling (W.Va., Ohio), lost 5,849, or 3.8 percent.
Morgantown, added 3,936, or 3.5 percent.
Pennsylvania
Losers:
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, down 9,786, or 1.7 percent.
Johnstown, down 5,631, or 3.7 percent.
Altoona, down 2,650, or 2.1 percent.
Erie, down 1,032, or 0.4 percent.
Winners:
Philadelphia/Camden/Wilmington, up 139,601, or 2.5 percent.
York-Hanover, up 34,571, or 9.1 percent.
Reading, up 27,488, or 7.4 percent.
Harrisburg/Carlisle, up 16.306, or 3.2 percent.
Lebanon, up 6,556, or 2.8 percent.
State College, up 5,195, or 3.8 percent.
Around the nation
-
New Orleans/Metairie/Kenner, lost 291,834.
-
Pittsburgh, lost 60,309.
-
Cleveland/Elyria/Mentor, lost 33,855.
-
Buffalo/Niagara Falls, lost 32,589.
-
Gulfport/Biloxi, Miss., lost 18,286.
-
Youngstown/Warren/Boardman, lost 16,025.
-
Scranton/Wilkes Barre, lost 9,786.
-
Dayton, Ohio, lost 9,217.
-
Weirton/Steubenville, lost 6,840.
-
Wichita Falls, Texas, lost 5,996.
Growth areas
-
St. George, Utah, up 39.8 percent.
-
Greeley, Colo., up 31 percent.
-
Cape Coral/Fort Myers, Fla., up 29.6 percent.
