Downtown America attracting more residents

Numerous cranes signal progress in downtown Atlanta.

Downtown is becoming a good place to work but also to live, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report revised today.

Metro areas with five million or more people experienced double-digit population growth rates within their downtown areas (within a two-mile radius of their largest city’s City Hall), more than double the rate of these areas overall.

Chicago experienced the largest numeric gain in its downtown area, with a net increase of 48,000 residents over 10 years. New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington also posted large population increases close to city hall.

These downtown gains were not universal, however: New Orleans and Baltimore experienced the greatest population declines in their downtown areas (35,000 and slightly more than 10,000, respectively). Two smaller areas in Ohio ─ Dayton and Toledo ─ also saw downtown declines of more than 10,000.

Other report highlights include the following:

 --More than one in 10 U.S. residents lived in either the New York or Los Angeles metro area in 2010.

--The Hispanic share of the population increased in every U.S. metro area.

--Metro area populations were younger (a median of 36.6 years) than the population in either micro areas (39.3 years) or territory outside either of these areas (41.9 years).

(Photo by Tomi Johnson)