by the numbers: Youngstown City Population Stats by Ward, 1980-2010

Since the results of the 2010 Census have come out, stories in the press have centered on the City of Youngstown's shrinking population, now standing at 67,000 residents.

But what about the population figures per ward of the city?

With the recent release of population statistics per census block group and census tract, the populations in each of the city's seven wards in 2010 is available as well.

Here's the compiled data for each of Wards 1 to 7 in 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010:


For each of those years, the geographic boundaries of the wards have not changed.

Here is a graph of the raw data, showing the population per ward over those thirty years:


Over that same time period, here is the change in the ratio of each ward's population compared to the entire City of Youngstown's population.



some interesting observations from the data:

- Youngstown's (city) population has declined 42% from 115,500 in 1980 to 67,000 in 2010.

- Losing the most population from 1980 to 2010 are the First Wards and the Sixth Wards, both having more than 50% losses.

- Losing the least population from 1980 to 2010 are the Fourth Wards and the Seventh Wards, both having less than 30% losses.

- The least populous ward in 1980 had more people than the most populous ward in 2000.

- Similarly, the least populous ward in 1990 had more people than the most populous ward in 2010.

- In 2010 the Sixth Ward contained 10.8% of the city's population. In 2010, the Fourth Ward contained 18.1% of the city's population. This is getting close to a 2:1 ratio of residents inside each ward when comparing the two jurisdictions.

The conclusion:

Each ward in the city is losing population, but the rate of change per ward has created substantial population inequalities between them.